Alex Rider and the books of the past
by May-The-Wolf-Girl
Summary: One day Alex is woken up by a mysterious person bringing books of the past for them to read. Who is this mysterious person? How did the books come to be? Read more and find out.
1. Unexpected visitors

_**Alex Rider and the books of the past.**_

An: So here it is. I had a poll on my profile whether or not I should write one of these and at the moment it looks like I should. I will update when I can, but this is the first characters reading story I have done so it might take some time. Please read and enjoy, (and review)

Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to the Alex Rider series; all rights go to their respective owners.

Summary: One day Alex is woken up by a mysterious person bringing books of the past for them to read. Who is this mysterious person? How did the books come to be? Read more and find out.

A mysterious encounter

When the doorbell rings at 3 o'clock in the morning, it is never good news. This was something Alex had experience in and was sure of. At the moment however he could not help but wonder if the same thing could be said if the doorbell rang at two. Because if it did, he would rather not bother with getting the door.

The doorbell rang again and brought him out of his musing. After a few moments he figured that he might as well get it as he was already awake. There was no need for Jack to wake up, when he was perfectly capable to do it.

He was halfway to his bedroom door before he quickly grabbed the bat from under his bed. If there was one thing working for MI6 had thought him, it was that you could never be too careful. As he walked to the door he could not help but wonder how it was that his spy of an uncle had never installed a peephole in the door. It would certainly have made things easier.

At first he could not believe what he was seeing, he blinked a few times to try and wake up more, but the person before him did not change. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again the moment he realized he didn't know how to react to this. It seemed like hours passed before he managed to speak.

"Who are you? What do you want?" It really was a logical question, Alex thought. After all the man could not possibly be who he looked to be. If he had learned anything after all his months helping MI6 it was that nothing were ever what it seemed like.

The man didn't answer at first, he just smiled what seemed like a painful smile, and his eyes shone of what seemed like sorrow. "I know I have been gone for a long time, but do you really not recognize me Alex?" The voice was so painfully familiar. Alex felt tears pressing at his eyes. This was really too cruel, showing up at his house pretending to be him, when Alex knew that he was dead

A small voice in the back of his head reminded him that MI6 had lied to him before, there was no reason to trust that they didn't just lie about his death. He quickly shock that thought out of his head, because if he had been alive he could have come back sooner, he could have saved Alex from the hellish life he had been forced to live. He would not let himself hope, he would not let himself be hurt again.

"I know who you look like." Alex stated harshly, "but that doesn't mean that you are him." The man gave him a weird look.

"You didn't use to be this paranoid" the man stated and Alex gave a harsh laugh.

"Well, I guess I grew up." He mumbled. The man starred at him for a while and then he heaved a sigh.

"Well then, I am your father's brother and as to what I am doing here. I am returning home." He finally said and Alex felt his heart jump in his chest.

Ian Rider had always hated being called uncle, therefore calling him that had been out of the question. As an alternative they had started calling him Alex's fathers brother. Whenever Ian sent someone to pick Alex up or called him, that sentence worked as a kind of safe word, something that assured Alex of the identity of the speaker.

Alex felt the bat fall out of his suddenly powerless hand. "H… h… How?" he stammered.

Ian smiled, "perhaps we should continue this inside?" He said and Alex nodded and stepped aside to let him enter.

Ian noticed that the hall and living room had changed very little in his absence and in a way it saddened him. In many ways it seemed like the house had frozen over the day he ``died``. Then he looked at something that nearly broke his heart. When he had left for the stormbreaker mission Alex had, had that youthful happiness that you saw in most kids. Sure he had been stronger and smarter than many, and a little more serious, but he had still been a kid. He had joked around and he had loved to prank people.

When Ian looked at him now, he almost wanted to cry. His little nephew looked almost broken. His eyes that had once shined with life were dull and suspicious. He was almost sickly pale and his body looked stiff as if he were in constant pain.

Ian had always treated Alex as if he was older than he was, but he had always made sure to not go too far. He wanted Alex to be ready for what was out there, but he still wanted him to have the childhood he wanted. All he had done and thought Alex was to make sure he never looked like he did now. To know that he had failed made him even sadder. He could feel the anger building in him. He would make sure the once responsible would pay, and he was sure the things he had received would help him realize who it was that were responsible.

Alex did not know what to believe. Ian Rider was sitting in front of him. He wanted to cry, to yell, but he let none of that show. "How are you here?" he asked. It was after all the most important thing to find out right now.

Ian began to explain. "Firstly, I was never shot by Yassen Gregorovitch. "When he saw the incredulous expression on Alex's face, he hurried on. "Yassen knew who I was, and as he has a soft spot for you, he did not want you to experience the life he knew you would have if I died. So he warned me and I ran, but Sayle sent someone else after me and it was him who shot me. The bullet only hit me in the arm, but I lost control and crashed. I ended up in a coma. Yassen found me and dropped me of at a hospital. I woke up a couple of weeks ago, but I was very weak. Then Yassen came and got me and here I am."

Alex just blinked at him. "So Yassen is alive to?" he said and Ian laughed and nodded. Alex was so not up to this at two fifteen in the morning, but on the positive side, nothing much could surprise him now. Before he had even finished that thought, the doorbell rang. He starred at Ian for a while then he huffed and got up to get it. How Jack could sleep through all this ruckus was beyond him.

He wasn't actually surprised when he opened the door and Yassen was standing on the other side. "This day is so weird he mumbled as he let the assassin in.

They sat in silence for what, to Alex, felt like an eternity. Then Ian broke the silence. "This is your only reaction?" he wondered. Alex lifted his head from where he had rested it on his arms on the table.

"It's two," he cheeked the clock, "thirty in the morning." He stated and gave them a grumpy look. "I have sleep for approximately thirty minutes. How in the world did you think I would react?"

Ian and Yassen looked at each other. "Well, I don't know about Yassen, but I thought you would, freak or cry or something.

Alex laughed. "Two dead people are sitting in my living room, why would I freak?"

Ian got a relieved look on his face. Yassen looked imploringly at him so Ian hurried to explain. "If he hadn't freaked I would have worried even more for his sanity." He whispered, while he watched Alex.

"I am sorry, little Alex, that I did not tell you that your unc…" Yassen broke of when Ian glared at him. Alex actually giggled. Yassen lifted his eyebrows and sighed- He wondered what he had gotten himself into when he had decided to get involved in Rider business. "That I did not tell you that your Ian was alive." Alex giggled again. He really had to ne tired he thought.

"Ian hates being called Uncle. Therefore we call him my father's brother." Alex studied the two men for a while before he broke the silence again. "You aren't well though, why did you come back now?"

Ian pouted, "Well I didn't know you would mind me being here…" Alex just stared at him. "Ookaay. A couple of days ago, we were contacted by a writer who has researched about you and written some books. Therefore I and Yassen…" Yassen interrupted him with a glare.

"Ooookaaay," Ian said. "I decided we should read them with you and some other people you have met while I was away. Because I want to know what you have been doing while I was away" he exclaimed joyfully.

"How much do you already know?" Alex asked suspiciously.

"Yassen only told me you had ended up in some trouble. He wouldn't tell me more" Ian pouted.

Alex gaped. "What?!"

Ian smiled. "I will get to know everything you have done, said and thought over the few last months." He said gleefully.

Sometimes Alex really wondered about Ian's sanity. "How in the world would he know what I have been thinking? Hmm? There is a slight possibility that he know what I have done and said, but my thoughts Ian, really?"

Ian smiled bashfully and Yassen wondered what he was doing here.

"Who exactly did you envision should be here and read these books with us, and how in the world did you imagine you would contact them." Alex asked even thought he really didn't want to know the answer.

"Well…"

*********************AN***********************

Well that's all folks. Please review and tell me who you want to take part in the reading. Hope you enjoyed the story and that you will keep enjoying it.


	2. Funeral voices

AN: I won't copy the whole chapter and when I leave something out I will mark it with this (…). I don't remember if I mention when this story takes place and I am to lacy to check so I'll just say so here. This story takes place after Snakehead, but before Crocodile tears.

Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to Alex Rider; all rights go to their respective owners.

********************Story*******************************

"Well, the person who wrote this left a list of people you meet in this book so we were thinking that they should be here and your friend Tom of course. As to how we were thinking of contacting these people that would be your job as we" Ian motioned to himself and Yassen, "can't really be seen out and about yet," Ian smiled charmingly at Alex, who just stared blankly back.

"You should have someone look at your brain real soon." He said and nodded to himself. Ian pouted and Yassen sighed.

"What did you think Ian? That he would just agree to it immediately? He is a fourteen year old kid. You told me yourself that he was a very private person, you couldn't really believe he would be happy about this." Alex smiled gratefully at Yassen, at least someone understood his feelings.

Ian huffed and gave Alex a begging look. Alex almost began to laugh, it had been so long since he last saw that look. That alone convinced him, until he heard the list of people that were joining them, that is.

"So who?" Alex asked impatiently.

"Well, to being with we were thinking of having my old bosses Blunt and Jones join us, and one of my colleagues Smithers. Then there is a group of people called K-Unit and your friend Tom and Jack of course. Then we can contact more people if we want so later." Ian smiled and then looked worriedly at Alex, who had paled drastically when he heard the names on the list. "Are you OK, you look a little pale." Alex just forced a smile and said he would go contact them at once. Yassen watched on amused, it would be interesting to watch Ian Rider oblivious to his nephews' life, stuck in a room with multiple people who have that knowledge. Maybe someone would end up dead.

-Time skip- a few minutes later-

Alex banged his head against the wall. Why did he have to be stuck in the house reading about his past with his thought to be dead uncle and Yassen, and as if that wasn't bad enough Blunt had to be there too. He took a few slow breaths to calm himself down. It wouldn't really be that hard to contact them. He had Bens number and he was sure he could get a hold of the rest of the unit. He would just call Blunt and Tom. It was the whole, how to get them to come that was the problem. In the end he decided to just tell them various degrees of the truth.

And now he stood here waiting Tom had already arrived and now he was waiting for the rest. He didn't say anything to them when they arrived he just showed them in and let the presence of the two dead men to speak for itself. K- Unit didn't get this so he let the grown- ups explain it. Alex had decided that it was time to take a nap.

When he woke up a few hours later all was explained and everyone was seated. Tom was sitting between Ian and Yassen and he was staring at him in wonder. The people of MI6 was sitting on the opposite side of the table from the. K-Unit was seated next to them and Jack was sitting on a chair on one of the short sides of the table. Alex decided to just sit on the armrest beside Ian.

Ian smiled gently at his nephew and picked up the book called Stormbreaker. "Well I decided to not read on the back since that would ruin the story, so who wants to start reading the first chapter?" he looked expectantly at them. They all just stared blankly at him.

"I can do it Mr. R." Tom said suddenly and took the book from Ian.

**"Chapter one- FUNERAL VOICES" **Tom read and snorted. "Well, that's a great beginning of a book. Smithers laughed and the other grown- ups just sat there. Alex smiled sadly and decided to stare at Ian. He couldn't believe that Ian was still alive.

**WHEN THE DOORBELL rings at three in the morning, it's never good news. **"That fact doesn't really stop anyone from ringing the doorbell that early does it?" Alex commented and looked at Ian and Yassen with raised eyebrows. They just smiled skeptically back.

**Alex Rider was woken by the first chime. His eyes flickered open, but for a moment he stayed completely still in his bed, lying on his back with his head resting on the pillow.**

**He heard a bedroom door open and a creak of wood as somebody went downstairs. The bell rang a second time, and he looked at the alarm clock glowing beside him. 3.02 a.m. There was a rattle as someone slid the security chain off the front door. **Most of the adults were amazed at how much the kid noticed. Yassen couldn't help but understand how Alex could be so good at what he was forced to do.

**He rolled out of bed and walked over to the open window, his bare feet pressing down the carpet pile. The moonlight spilled onto his chest and shoulders. Alex was fourteen, already well built, with the body of an athlete. His hair, cut short apart from two thick strands hanging over his forehead, was fair. His eyes were brown and serious. "**Awe, my adorable handsome nephew." Ian cooed mockingly at Alex, who retorted by smacking him on the head. Tom smiled at how happy his friend was. He had actually never seen Alex with a true smile on his face since Ian had "died".

**For a moment he stood silently, half hidden in the shadow, looking out. There was a police car parked outside.**

**(…)**

**And Alex already knew. "**Alex…" Alex shook his head at Ian, he really didn't want to talk about it right now**. **

"Later Ok, Ian. Let's just finish the book first ok". Ian nodded and motioned for Tom to keep going.

**He knew from the way the police stood there, awkward and unhappy. But he also knew from the tone of their voices. Funeral voices ... that was how he would describe them later. The sort of voices people use when they come to tell you that someone close to you has died. He went to his door and opened it. He could hear the two policemen talking down in the hall, but only some of the words reached him.**

**"... a car accident ... called the ambulance ... intensive care ... nothing anyone could do ... so sorry."**

**It was only hours later, sitting in the kitchen, watching as the grey light of morning bled slowly through the West London streets, that Alex could try to make sense of what had happened. His uncle-Ian Rider-was dead. Driving home, his car had been hit by a lorry at Old Street roundabout and he had been killed almost instantly. He hadn't been wearing a seat belt, the police said. Otherwise, he might have had a chance." **"It's really suspicious isn't it Ian, that you didn't wear a seatbelt." Alex said while staring at Blunt. Like he really didn't understand that, it had been a test. When Alex said that Ian also ended up looking at Blunt, but for another reason. Ian couldn't understand why they had come up with such an unlikely excuse.

**"Alex thought of the man who had been his only relation for as long as he could remember. He had never known his own parents. They had died in an accident, that one a plane crash, a few weeks after he had been born." "**Yeah, a plane crash, right" Alex rolled his eyes.

Ian looked surprised over at him. When he thought it over Alex had taken the whole thing great. Yassen had told him that MI6 had told Alex that Yassen had shot him, but come to think about it, he hadn't said anything about how that had come to be. For all Ian knew, they might have told Alex everything. He decided to keep an eye on the relations between Alex, Blunt, Jones and Smithers as they kept reading.

**He had been brought up by his father's brother (never "uncle"-Ian Rider had hated that word)**

"Why?" everyone jumped, Alex smiled. It seemed like everyone had forgotten that the soldiers were there.

"Why what Wolf?" Alex asked. After Wolf had been shot because of him his view of the soldier had changed, he still didn't know about Snake and Eagle, but he understood why Fox and Wolf had acted the way they did.

"Why would you deny your nephew the chance of forming family bond with his last family? It kind of sounds like you doesn't want to be his uncle." Everyone looked shocked at the soldier. Alex and Yassen looked at Ian. Alex had, had his doubts after the whole MI6 deal. It had made him doubt his relationship with his uncle and it had made him realize that he didn't really know his Uncle that much.

Yassen had also wondered, but he was sure about Ian's feelings for Alex, if not he would have just killed him when he was told to.

"It's not that I deny him the chance of forming family bonds with me, it just that when he calls me uncle, I feel really old." The soldiers raised their eyebrows and Jack snorted, it wasn't heard as Alex started to laugh. Ian smiled when he saw the dark cloud that had formed over Alex when Wolf had asked, disappear.

**And had spent fourteen years in the same terraced house in Chelsea, London, between the King's Road and the river. But it was only now Alex realized just how little he knew about the man. A banker. People said Alex looked quite like him. Ian Rider was always traveling. A quiet, private man who liked good wine, classical music and books. Who didn't seem to have any girlfriends… in fact he didn't have any friends at all. **"Oi. I do so have friends." Ian exclaimed. Alex stared at him for a while before he snorted.

"Really Ian, mention three." Ian smiled.

"Smithers, Jack, Yassen." Alex blinked at him, before he turned his back to them all and laughed.

"So, when the actions in this book took place, you only had two friends." Alex nodded to himself. "It's not like there is something wrong with that."

Ian huffed and crossed his arms. "You just be that way" Alex smiled and slung his arm across his shoulder.  
"Aw, don't be sad. You still have me and you can still call yourself the coolest Uncle. You know if you ever get over the point that you are old." Alex smirked and ducked his uncle's arm. He motioned to Tom to keep reading.

**"Are you all right, Alex?" A young woman had come into the room. She was in her late twenties with a sprawl of red hair and a round, boyish face. Jack Starbright was American. She had come to London as a student seven years ago, rented a room in the house in return for light housework and baby-sitting duties and had stayed on to become housekeeper and one of Alex's closest companions. Sometimes he wondered what the Jack was short for. Jackie? Jacqueline?**

Both Ian and Alex looked inquiringly at her, but she just shook her head. Ian noticed that she seemed distant and that this seemed normal for Alex. This worried him greatly.

**(…)**

**Ian's office was a room running the full length of the house, high up at the top - It was the only room that was always locked-Alex had only been in there three or four times, and never on his own. When he was younger, he had fantasized that there might be something strange up there; a time machine or a UFO." **Everyone except Alex and Blunt laughed. Blunt because he was a heartless man and Alex because he was too busy pouting. "I was like six or something, it's not like I think that now."

"You keep telling yourself that cubby" Eagle said and Ian turned his head to him.

Why in the world would Alex have a code name? He shook his head and tuned in on the conversation.

"Oh whatever, Eagle, I don't need to her something like that from someone who never grew up." This made the rest of K-unit burst out laughing. Alex just shook his head and met Tom's eyes.

**But it was merely an office with a desk, a couple of filing cabinets, shelves full of papers and books. Bank stuff-that's what Ian said. Even so, Alex wanted to go up there now.**

**"The police said he wasn't wearing his seat belt." Alex turned to look at Jack.**

**She nodded. "Yeah. That's what they said."**

**"Doesn't that seem strange to you? You know how careful he was. He always wore his seat belt. He wouldn't even drive me around the corner without making me put mine on." **Alex just stared at Blunt as this was read. "What is it?" Alex made a dramatically jump so that he fell down. "It speaks!" he jelled as he jumped up and pointed at Blunt. Ian laughed and Fox rolled his eyes. Tom met Alex's eyes and laughed inside. He knew exactly what Alex was doing and he really hoped someone would notice soon, before Alex had a complete breakdown.

"It's absolutely nothing, it's just that you are sitting in my line of sight." Alex said and winked at Tom who started to read again.

**Jack thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, it is strange," she said. "But that must have been the way it was. Why would the police have lied?"**

**(…)**

**And finally a man from the bank.**

**"All of us at the Royal and General are deeply shocked," he said. He looked about thirty, wearing a polyester suit with a Marks & Spencer tie. He had the sort of face you forget even while you're looking at it** **and had introduced himself as Crawley, from personnel. "But if there's anything we can do..."**

**"What will happen?" Alex asked for the second time that day.**

**"You don't have to worry," Crawley said. "The bank will take care of everything. That's my job. You leave everything to me."**

"I'm really grateful that you took care of my Alex while I was unable to" Ian smiled towards the Spies.

Jack snorted. "You won't feel that for long" she mumbled, but Ian heard her and gave her a startled look. She just waved him of and told Tom to continue,

**The day passed. Alex killed a couple of hours knocking a few balls around on his uncle's snooker table and then felt vaguely guilty when Jack caught him at it. **

Alex sent Ian a guilty look and Ian smiled at him. "You have nothing to feel guilty about. I do not want your life to stop when I die. I want you to keep living and do whatever it is that you want to do. And I mean that Alex, I have hopefully taught you a lot and I hope you will use that to make sure nobody stops you from doing what you want to do."

Ian didn't notice that Blunt and Jones paled during his little speech. He barely noticed that Tom gave Alex a pointed look or the weird looks the soldiers gave him. All his focus was on the brilliant smile that covered his nephews face. And that was when he heard Jack mumble again and he knew that this time he couldn't just ignore it.

He turned to her. "What did you mean by that?" Alex gave him a weird look and Yassen huffed. Yassen had an idea what was wrong with the redhead, but wouldn't say anything until he was sure, till then he would just keep observing.

"What did I mean by what?" Jack asked, completely uninterested.

"You mumbled that then I would be disappointed in Alex, tell me what you meant by that?" she huffed and crossed her arms.

"You'll see" Ian was about to demand an explanation, but Alex stopped him.

"Later Ian, let's just read" Alex begged him and he gave in.

**But what else was he to do? Later on she took him to a Burger King. He was glad to get out of the house, but the two of them barely spoke. Alex assumed Jack would have to go back to America. She certainly couldn't stay in London forever. So who would look after him? At fourteen, he was still too young to look after himself. His whole future looked so uncertain that he preferred not to talk about it. He preferred not to talk at all.**

**(…)**

**Alex shivered. There was something about the new arrival that made his skin crawl. And yet the man was ordinary to look at. Gray suit, gray hair, gray lips, and gray eyes. His face was expressionless, the eyes behind the square, gunmetal spectacles, completely empty.**

**Perhaps that was what had disturbed Alex. Whoever this man was, he seemed to have less life than anyone in the cemetery. Above or below ground. **

"You've got that right" Tom laughed and looked over at Blunt. Alex winked at him and all adults in the room were yet again surprised by his surprisingly accurate descriptions.

**Someone tapped Alex on the shoulder and he turned around to see Mr. Crawley leaning over him. "That's Mr. Blunt," the personnel manager whispered. "He's the chairman of the bank."**

**Alex's eyes traveled past Blunt and over to the Rolls Royce. Two more men had come with him, one of them driving. They were wearing identical suits and, although it wasn't a particularly bright day, sunglasses.**

**Both of them were watching the funeral with the same grim faces. Alex looked from them to Blunt and then to the other people who had come to the cemetery. Had they really known Ian Rider? Why had he never met any of them before? And why did he find it so difficult to believe that they really worked for a bank?**

**"…a good man, a patriotic man. He will be missed."**

**The vicar had finished his graveside address. His choice of words struck Alex as odd. Patriotic? That meant he loved his country. But as far as Alex knew, Ian Rider had barely spent any time in it. Certainly he had never been one for waving the Union Jack. He looked around, hoping to find Jack, but saw instead that Blunt was making his way toward him, stepping carefully around the grave.**

**"You must be Alex." The chairman was only a little taller than him. Up close, his skin was strangely unreal. It could have been made of plastic. "My name is Alan Blunt," he said. "Your uncle often spoke about you."**

**"That's funny," Alex said. "He never mentioned you."**

**The gray lips twitched briefly. "We'll miss him. He was a good man."**

**"What was he good at?" Alex asked. "He never talked about his work."**

**Suddenly Crawley was there. "Your uncle was overseas finance manager, Alex," he said. "He was responsible for our foreign branches. You must have known that." **"I'm sorry Alex, I should have explained more, I just thought I had more time, I don't know if you know now, but if you don't I will explain after we are done reading.

**(…)**

**That was when it happened.**

**As Blunt was getting into the Rolls-Royce, the driver leaned down to open the back door and his jacket fell open, revealing a stark white shirt underneath. There was a black shape lying against it and that was what caught Alex's eye. The man was wearing a leather holster with an automatic pistol strapped inside. Realizing what had happened, the driver quickly straightened up and pulled the jacket across. Blunt had seen it too. He turned back and looked again at Alex. Something very close to an emotion slithered over his face. Then he got into the car, the door closed, and he was gone. A gun at a funeral, Alex thought. Why? Why should bank managers carry guns?**

Ian stared furiously at Blunt and Jones. Somehow he felt that this was intentional. That this was a sort of test done by the MI6 and he felt a couple of pieces stick themselves together and he did not like the picture they made. He decided to wait until he was completely sure, and if what he thought was right, he would kill Blunt himself. The Rider family motto was that Family was all and should always be taken care of. You never messed with a Rider child if you appreciated your life.

**"Let's get out of here," Suddenly Jack was at his side. "Cemeteries give me the creeps."**

**"Yes. And quite a few creeps have turned up," Alex muttered.**

**(…)**

**Tiny details, but Alex's eyes missed nothing. Somebody had been in the house. He was almost sure of it. But he wasn't certain until he got to the top floor. The door to the office, which had always, always been locked, was now unlocked. Alex opened it and went in. The room was empty. Ian Rider had gone and so had everything else. The desk drawers, the closets, the shelves ... anything connected to the dead man's work had been taken. Whatever the truth was about his uncle's past, someone had just wiped it out."**

"Okay, your thing of seeing everything, every time is kind of creepy, but that was that chapter and I totally won't read the next one, this one was depressing enough." Tom said and put the book on the table.

******************************AN*************************

**All in bold letters is cited from: Anthony Horowitz: **_**Stormbreaker. **_**Walker books, 2006. **

That was the second chapter done. I hope you all liked it. Please review.


	3. Heaven for cars and Ians frustration

Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to Alex Rider; all rights go to their respective owners.

***************Story***********

"I will read" Ian said and grabbed the book. He found the right page and started to read.** Chapter 2: Heaven For Cars'**

"Oh man, is there a single one of these chapters that won't seem like they have some depressing shit in them." Tom moaned and looked over at Alex. Alex thought for a while before he gave Tom a weird look.

"How in the world would I know? I didn't write these annoyingly accurate books." Alex huffed.

"No, but you did live it," Tom stated like that should explain everything. Alex just stared at him.

"Dude, my life doesn't have titles…" at this Tom looked like he had just had an epiphany.

"Oh, that makes sense, and then you really wouldn't know, would you?" Alex just smiled at him.

**WITH HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE just ahead of him, Alex left the river and swung his bike through the lights and down the hill toward Brookland School.**

**The bike was a Condor Junior Roadracer, custom built for him on his twelfth birthday. It was a teenager's bike, with a cut down Reynolds 531 frame, but the wheels were full-size so he could ride at speed with hardly any rolling resistance. He spun past a delivery van and passed through the school gates. He would be sorry when he grew out of the bike. For two years now it had almost been part of him.**

"That's because you're a health freak or something, you can never just be still and play videogames or something." Tom stated, looking annoyed.

Ian rolled his eyes. He remembered how many times he had walked in on Alex and Tom playing videogames and how Alex had almost always complained that they didn't have enough action. Alex was a person who liked it when things happened all the time and he got very easily bored and restless.

"You don't have to worry about me calling your games boring anymore, I really prefer games that are unrealistic and boring now." Alex stated and got weird looks from both Ian and Tom. Yassen looked at him with an understanding gaze. He could completely understand why Alex would prefer the games that seemed unrealistic after Cray had made him play to survive.

**He double locked it in the shed and went into the yard. Brookland was a modern school, all redbrick and, to Alex's eye, rather ugly.**

**He could have gone to any of the exclusive private schools around Chelsea, but Ian Rider had decided to send him here. He had said it would be more of a challenge.**

Alex gave his uncle a weird look. "How would it have been more of a challenge? You know I hate those stuck up rich brats that you normally find in those places."

Blunt looked kind off insulted when Alex said this, but Alex was the only one that noticed. Ian just rolled his eyes and said "You have always had a difficult time of making friends. I knew that if I sent you to a private school, you would probably be hurt again." Ian broke off and gave Alex a meaning full look and Alex nodded. He really did not want anyone to hear that story, so he motioned for

**The first period of the day was algebra.**

**When Alex came into the classroom, the teacher, Mr. Donovan, was already chalking up a complicated equation on the board. It was hot in the room, the sun streaming in through the floor -to -ceiling windows, put in by architects who should have known better.**

**As Alex took his place near the back, he wondered how he was going to get through the lesson. How could he possibly think about algebra when there were so many other questions churning through his mind?**

"Ah, you have finally found out what all other kids already know, young 'Lexi, there are better and more worthy things to think about then algebra." Tom stated in a sage voice while he nodded serenely.

Everyone just gave him weird glances, but Alex sent him a small smile, he really appreciated what he was trying to do.

**The gun at the funeral. The way Blunt had looked at him.** **The van with STRYKER & SON written on the side. The empty office. And the biggest mystery of all, the one detail that refused to go away. The seat belt. Ian Rider hadn't been wearing a seat belt.**

"Yeah, really weird isn't it how all these things just kept piling up. It was almost as if someone was staging it wasn't it?" Alex stated and stared at Blunt. Ian looked between them and the bad feeling he had since the last chapter returned threefold. Something was definitely going on, and he really hoped that he was wrong in his thought as to what that was.

**But of course he had. Ian Rider had never been one to give lectures. He had always said Alex should make up his own mind about things. But he'd had this thing about seat belts.**

"Why is that Mr. R? I know most parents nag about seatbelts, but you wouldn't even start the car if Alex hadn't fastened his seatbelt." Alex looked weirdly at Tom when he said that, but he guessed it was true, Ian might not act like a normal parental figure, but for all intent and purpose that was what he was.

"There are a lot of things in this world that can kill you, and I decided a long time ago, that I was going to do all I could to make sure Alex wasn't harmed. And I sure as h** weren't going to let a silly thing like a car kill him. Especially, not because of something stupid like not wearing a seatbelt." Ian said and smiled at Tom. Because of that he did not notice that Blunt and Jones paled, or the smiles that Smithers, Yassen and Alex shared. Nor did he notice the grimace that for a short moment adorned Jack's face.

**The more Alex thought about it, the less he believed it. A collision in the middle of the city.**

"Now when I think back that is strange, wouldn't it have been on the news or something." Alex said still staring at Blunt. Nobody answered him, but Ian felt himself get frustrated. He really hoped the relationship between Blunt and his nephew soon would be explained.

**Suddenly he wished he could see the car. At least the wreckage would tell him that the accident had really happened, that Ian Rider had really died that way.**

"**Alex?"**

**Alex looked up and realized that everyone was staring at him. Mr. Donovan had just asked him something. He quickly scanned the blackboard, taking in the figures. "Yes, Sir," he said. "X equals seven and Y is fifteen." The math teacher sighed. "Yes, Alex. You're absolutely right. But actually I was just asking you to open the window. . . "**

"CoughNerdcough" Tom fake coughed at Alex and the others in the room was surprised at how smart Alex seemed to be.

**Somehow he managed to get through the rest of the day, but by the time the final bell rang, his mind was made up. While everyone else streamed out, he made his way to the secretary's office and borrowed a copy of the Yellow Pages.**

"**What are you looking for?" the secretary asked. Miss Bedfordshire had always had a soft spot for Alex.**

"Someone is in looooove!" Tom sang. Alex didn't even know what to say. "Tommy, are you calling Miss Bedfordshire a pedo?" Tom got a horrified look on his face and decided to take it back. He had forgotten why he usually didn't mess with Alex. He had a way of turning your jokes back on you and he did it in such a logical way so that it didn't matter what you said, his comments where almost always indisputable.

"**Auto junkyards . . ." Alex flicked through the pages. "If a car got smashed up near Old Street, they'd take it somewhere near, wouldn't they?"**

"**I suppose so."**

"**Here" Alex had found the yards listed under "Auto Wreckers." But there were dozens of them fighting for attention over four pages.**

"**Is this for a school project?" the secretary asked. She knew Alex had lost a relative, but not how.**

"**Sort of . . ." Alex was reading the addresses, but they told him nothing.**

"**This one's quite near Old Street." Miss Bedfordshire pointed at the corner of the page.**

"**Wait!" Alex tugged the book toward him and looked at the entry underneath the one the secretary had chosen:**

**J. B. STRYKER. AUTO WRECKERS**

**Heaven for Cars**

**CALL US TODAY**

"**That's in Vauxhall," Miss Bedfordshire said. "Not too far from here."**

"**I know." But Alex had recognized the name. J. B. Stryker. He thought back to the van he had seen outside his house on the day of the funeral. Stryker & Son. Of course it might just be a coincidence,**

"Awe, aren't I just naïve." Alex mock cooed. The soldiers gave him weird looks. Alex looked at them and then exclaimed, "What? I have just come to realize that when you are dealing with certain some ones there are rarely something called coincidences." Ian gave him a sad look and felt his heart break. So his fears had come true, he might not know how much, but MI6 had clearly interfered in Alex's life to some extent.

**But it was still somewhere to start. He closed the book. "I'll see you, Miss Bedfordshire."**

"**Be careful." The secretary watched Alex leave, wondering why she had said that. Maybe it was his eyes. Dark and serious, there was something dangerous there. **

Tom and Ian laughed. When they noticed the others in the room staring at them Ian started to explain. "some time after Tom and Alex became friends, someone tried to kidnap them both, they still haven't told me what happened, but when the police arrived the kidnapers where begging to be brought in and away from the crazy kids with the scary eyes." He collected himself. "When Alex is completely at ease and feels safe, he has the most innocent eyes in the world, but when he feels endangered or unsafe, he gets these dark and serious eyes, that can promise you all from danger to death. When the police back then looked into Alex's eyes they were met with the innocent ones and just assumed the man was crazy or trying to get a milder punishment. We usually joke about how he has to sets of eyes, those of a child and those of a fighter."

All eyes turned shocked to Alex, but he made sure that none of them saw his eyes, all except Yassen who was saddened when he saw that they where the eyes of a fighter, not a child.

**Then the telephone rang and she forgot him as she went back to work.**

**(…)**

**A telephone rang somewhere in the shed and the guard turned around to answer it. That was enough for Alex. Holding his bike and wheeling it along beside him, he sprinted through the gates.**

At this point both Eagle and Tom was humming the James Bond theme song. Alex rolled his eyes at the, while the other soldiers tried to hide their embarrassment. The others in the room couldn't really believe that this was one of the men they trusted to protect their country.

**(…)**

**Leaving his bike propped against the wall, Alex ran farther into the yard, crouching down behind the wrecks. With the din from the machines, there was no chance that anyone would hear him, but he was still afraid of being seen. He stopped to catch his breath, drawing a grimy hand across his face. His eyes were watering from the diesel fumes. The air was as filthy as the ground beneath him.**

**He was beginning to regret coming-**

"So you turned around and left?" Ian said hopefully even though both his head and guts told him otherwise. Alex just shook his head at him and Ian felt his unease grow. Knowing the MI6 the way he did he really hoped they would prove him wrong because if they didn't he might just have to get Yassen to help him to kill someone and if he had interpreted the looks Yassen kept sending Alex right, then Yassen would have no problem with that.

**But then he saw it. His uncle's BMW was parked a few yards away, separated from the other cars. At first glance it looked absolutely fine, the metallic silver bodywork not even scratched.**

**Certainly there was no way that this car could have been involved in a fatal collision with a truck or with anything else. But it was definitely his uncle's car. Alex recognized the license plate. He hurried closer and it was now that he saw that the car was damaged after all. The windshield had been smashed, along with all the windows on the driver's side. Alex made his way around to the other side. And froze.**

**Ian Rider hadn't died in any accident. What had killed him was plain to see-even to someone who had never seen such a thing before. A spray of bullets had caught the car full on the driver's side, shattering the front tire, smashing the windshield and side windows, and punching into the side panels.**

**Alex ran his fingers over the holes. The metal felt cold against his flesh. He opened the door and looked inside. The front seats pale gray leather, were strewn with fragments of broken glass and stained with patches of dark brown. He didn't need to ask what the stain was.**

**He could see everything. The flash of the machine gun, the bullets ripping into the car, Ian Rider jerking in the driver's seat …**

Everyone in the room, (except Blunt) had a pitying or sad face when Ian read this. Ian lifted an arm and slung it around Alex's shoulders and pulled him down so that he was squished between the side of the couch and his lap. He was a spy he had known for a long time that he would probably die a violent death, but he had also always trusted that MI6 would come up with a plausible death to tell Alex, he had never wished for Alex to find out that he died a death like the one in the book. Especially when he didn't even know that he was a spy.

Alex didn't say anything about his uncles' actions, he just rolled his eyes and pretended to be embarrassed. Tom smiled at him and when he looked into Yassens eyes he saw understanding. Alex nudged Ian gently in the side to get him to keep reading.

"Hey!" Ian shouted and moved away from Alex. "Watch the strength there kiddo."

Alex looked suspiciously at Ian's side. There was definitely something wrong with his uncle's ribs. He saved the information for later and just stuck out his tongue at his uncles' actions.

**But why? Why kill a bank manager? And why had the murder been covered up? It was the police who had delivered the news that night, so they must be part of it. Had they lied deliberately? None of it made sense.**

"Oh, it totally makes sense." Alex drawled, and starred straight at Blunt. "I should have understood it right at that moment, who else can manage to make such a lousy cover-up." He smiled mockingly at the head of MI6, but he got no answer.

Ian felt the need to rip Blunts head of build, all his doubts where gone, Blunt had definitely done something to his nephew and the moment he found out what. Blunt was going to pay.

The soldiers didn't know what to think. Wolf knew that Cub had been involved with the spy business, but he had thought it was voluntary, but looking at the way the kid spoke and acted against the head of the MI6 he started to think otherwise. He promised himself that if his suspicions were true, he would do all he could to help the kid get out.

Fox and Tom just found Cubs actions amusing and wondered when he would snap. He was clearly under a lot of mental pressure and he seemed almost ready to snap.

"**You should have gotten rid of it two days ago. Do it now. . ."**

**The machines must have stopped for a moment. If there hadn't been a sudden lull, Alex would never have heard the men coming. Quickly he looked across the steering wheel and out the other side. There were two of them, both dressed in loose-fitting overalls. Alex had a feeling he'd seen them before. At the funeral. One of them was the driver, the man he had seen with the gun. He was sure of it.**

**Whoever they were, they were only a few paces away from the car, talking in low voices. Another few steps and they would be there. Without thinking, Alex threw himself into the only hiding place available: inside the car itself. Using his foot, he hooked the door and closed it. At the same time, he became aware that the machines had started again and he could no longer hear the men.**

"Don't worry about the men Alex, have you forgotten where you're hiding?!" Ian shouted in fear and Alex cracked up.

"You do realize that you're speaking to a book right Ian." Ian just glared at Alex, and muttered that of course he knew that.

**He didn't dare look up. A shadow fell across the window as the two men passed. But then they were gone. He was safe. And then something hit the BMW with such force that Alex cried out, his whole body caught in a massive shock wave that tore him away from the steering wheel and threw him helplessly into the back.** **The roof buckled and three huge metal fingers tore through the skin of the car like a fork through an eggshell, trailing dust and sunlight. One of the fingers grazed the side of his head … any closer and it would have cracked his skull. Alex yelled as blood trickled over his eye. He tried to move, then was jerked back a second time as the car was yanked off the ground and tilted high up in the air.**

Ian raised his eyebrows at Alex as if to say I told you so. Alex just shrugged. "I never said I wasn't in danger. I just pointed out that you were speaking to a book."

Ian huffed and stared reading again. Alex could be so annoying some times.

**He couldn't see. He couldn't move. But his stomach lurched as the car swung in an arc, the metal grinding and the light spinning. The BMW had been picked up by the crane. It was going to be put inside the crusher. With him inside.**

Everyone flinched at the thought. No one would even realize what had happened to him, he would simply disappear.

**He tried to raise himself up, to wave through the windows. But the claw of the crane had already flattened the roof, pinning his left leg, perhaps even breaking it.**

**He could feel nothing. He lifted a hand and managed to pound on the back window, but he couldn't break the glass. Even if the workmen were staring at the BMW, they would never see anything moving inside.**

**His short flight across the junkyard ended with a bone-shattering crash as the crane deposited the car on the iron shelves of the crusher. Alex tried to fight back his sickness and despair and think of what to do. Any moment now the operator would send the car tipping into the coffin-shaped trough. The machine was a Lefort Shear, a slow-motion guillotine. At the press of a button, the two wings would close on the car with a joint pressure of five hundred tons. The car, with Alex inside it, would be crushed beyond recognition. And the broken metal-and flesh-would then be chopped into sections. Nobody would ever know what had happened.**

**He tried with all his strength to free himself. But the roof was too low. His leg was trapped. Then his whole world tilted and he felt himself falling into darkness. The shelves had lifted. The BMW slid to one side and fell the few yards into the trough. Alex felt the metalwork collapsing all around him.**

Ian read faster and faster just wishing that this part of the book would be over soon. He couldn't stand to hear how much danger Alex had been in, and all because of MI6 and their incompetence.

**The back window exploded and glass showered around his head, dust and diesel fumes punching into his nose and eyes. There was hardly any daylight now, but looking out of the back, he could see the huge steel head of the piston that would push what was left of the car through the exit hole on the other side.**

**The engine tone of the Lefort Shear changed as it prepared for the final act. The metal wings shuddered. In a few seconds' time the two of them would meet, crumpling the BMW like a paper bag. Alex pulled with all his strength and was astonished when his leg came free. It took him perhaps a second one precious second-to work out what had happened. When the car had fallen into the trough, it had landed on its side. The roof had buckled again just enough to free him. His hand scrabbled for the door-but, of course, that was useless. The doors were too bent. They would never open. The back window! With the glass gone, he could crawl through the frame, but only if he moved fast.**

**The wings began to move. The BMW screamed as two walls of solid steel relentlessly crushed it.**

**More glass shattered. One of the wheel axles snapped with the sound of a thunderbolt. Darkness began to close in. Alex grabbed hold of what was left of the backseat. Ahead of him he could see a single triangle of light, shrinking faster and faster. He could feel the weight of the two walls pressing down on him. The car was no longer a car but - the fist of some hideous monster snatching at the insect that Alex had become.**

**With all his strength, he surged forward. His shoulders passed through the triangle, out into the light. Next came his legs, but at the last moment his shoe caught on a piece of jagged metal. He jerked and the shoe was pulled off, falling back into the car. Alex heard the sound of the leather being squashed. Finally, clinging to the black, oily surface of the observation platform at the back of the crusher, he dragged himself clear and managed to stand up.**

Tom laughed and Yassen actually cracked a smile. "I can see why the underworld has started to call you Panther cub, easy to catch, but hard to keep a hold of." Yassen stated.

Alex gave him a weird look. "Why panther? I get the cub, because I am a kid and all, but panther?"

Yassen smiled. "Well some time ago. Your name came up during a gathering of the most powerful men in the criminal underworld. One older man there suddenly exclaimed golden panther. When he was asked to explain he said that when he looked at you fight, you reminded him of the time he had seen a white panther fight. You had a feline grace about you and your hair had the same color as the panthers in the sun. The others agreed and when they heard about how you where able to get out of everything. Someone also mentioned that to catch and hold you seemed like to catch and hold a cat. Is it willing, then it's the easiest thing in the world, if it's unwilling then it is near impossible."

Nobody knew what to say. Alex had gotten a nickname from the leaders of the criminal underworld. It almost seemed like they respected him.

Ian almost wanted to cry. What in the world had his nephew been up to in his absence.

Alex just glared at Yassen. Sure it was cool, but he could have waited to say that until Ian knew what he had been doing. When Yassen realized why Alex was glaring at him he just faked a woops.

He** found himself face-to-face with a man so fat that he could barely fit into the small cabin of the crusher. The man's stomach was pressed against the glass, his shoulders squeezed into the corners.**

**A cigarette dangled on his lower lip as his mouth fell open and his eyes stared. What he saw was a boy in the rags of what had once been a school uniform. A whole sleeve had been torn off and his arm, streaked with blood and oil, hung limply by his side. By the time the operator had, taken this all in come to his senses, and turned the machine off, the boy had gone.**

**Alex clambered down the side of the crusher, landing on the one foot that still had a shoe. He was aware now of the pieces of jagged metal lying everywhere. If he wasn't careful, he would cut open the other foot. His bicycle was where he had left it, leaning against the wall, and gingerly, half hopping, he made for it. Behind him he heard the cabin of the crusher open and a man's voice called out, raising the alarm.**

**At the same time a second man ran forward, stopping between Alex and his bike. It was the driver, the man he had seen at the funeral. His face, twisted into a hostile frown, was curiously ugly: greasy hair, watery eyes, pale, lifeless skin.**

"**What do you think . . ." he began. His hand slid into his jacket. Alex remembered the gun and, instantly, without even thinking, swung into action. He had started learning karate when he was six years old. One afternoon, with no explanation, Ian Rider had taken him to a local club for his first lesson and he had been going there, once a week, ever since. Over the years he had passed through the various Kyu-student grades. But it was only the year before that he had become a first-grade Dan, a black belt. When he had arrived at Brookland School, his gentle looks and accent had quickly brought him to the attention of the school bullies; three hulking sixteen-year olds. They had cornered him once behind the bike shed.** **The encounter lasted less than a minute. The next day one of the bullies had left Brookland, and the other two had never troubled anyone again.**

Tom starred at Alex for a long while. "What is it Tommy?"

"Whenever I or anyone else asked you what happened to them, you just said that you talked. That hardly seemed like the consequences of a conversation." Alex smiled an innocent smile.

"They didn't want to listen?" Alex said, but instead of sounding like an explanation it sounded like a question. Tom just shook his head. Alex was impossible.

**Now Alex brought up one leg, twisted his body around, and lashed out. The back kick Ushirogeri is said to be the most lethal in karate. His foot powered into the man's abdomen with such force that the man didn't even have time to cry out. His eyes bulged and his mouth half opened in surprise. Then, with his hand still halfway into his jacket, he crumpled to the ground.**

**Alex jumped over him, snatched up his bike, and swung himself onto it. In the distance a third man was running toward him. He heard the single word "Stop!" called out. Then there was a crack and a bullet whipped past.**

**Alex gripped the handlebars and pedaled as hard as he could. The bike shot forward, over the rubble and out through the gates. He took one look over his shoulder. Nobody had followed him.**

**With one shoe on and one shoe off, his clothes in rags, and his body streaked with oil, Alex knew he must look a strange sight. But then he thought back to his last seconds inside the crusher and sighed with relief. He could be looking a lot worse.**

"You shot at him! » Ian shouted at the unmoving spy. "You shot at my little nephew. You shot at him!" Alex almost felt like laughing, it almost sounded like Ian was a broken record. "Do you want to try and explain yourself, try to give me a good reason to why I shouldn't freaking kill you? Shooting at my innocent little nephew." Alex blushed. He had always known that his uncle loved him that did not mean that he wasn't embarrassed when he made him sound like a baby.

Alex looked around in the room and took in the different emotions to the revelation that MI6 had tried to shot him.

The soldiers looked pissed off and maybe a little disgusted or ashamed. It looked like they didn't want to know it, but Fox was nodding to himself like he had known they were capable of something like this.

Tom looked like he was ready to punch someone. They were very much like brothers and even though Alex was the one who normally protected Tom and acted like the big brother, it did not mean that Tom was any less protective of him.

Smithers looked simply disgusted. He had always known that the MI6 was capable of a lot of despicable things, but he had always thought they wouldn't want to get their hands dirty. So even though they might be capable of sending Alex to his death he had always thought they were above shooting him themselves.

Jones just looked sad, but it seemed like she had accepted everything they had done.

Yassen was the one whose reaction surprised him the most. He hadn't moved, the moment the shooting had begun in the book. Yassen had seemed to freeze. His face was completely bare of feelings, but his eyes, his eyes burned with rage. He was starring at blunt with murder in his eyes. At this moment Alex seriously doubted that Blunt would stay alive for long when the reading was done.

The last person Alex looked at was Blunt himself. At first glance it would seem like he was completely unmoved, but if you looked closer you could see fear and regret in his eyes. Alex did not believe that he regretted his actions that day. He probably just regretted the fact that Ian found out. When Alex thought about it, it would make sense if that crazy journalist was the one who wrote these books.

He sighed and leaned into Yassens side. Ian had deposited him there when he flew up to verbally attack Blunt. Tom had moved out of the way and was now sitting by his legs. It was at this point his eyes landed on Jack. She had been so silent that he had completely forgotten that she was there.

She was sitting silently in her chair. She seemed a little sad, but the feeling Alex got from her the most were indifference. It made him sadder than anything. He could not believe that the person he looked at like a big sister had come to resent him like this. He buried his head in Yassens shoulder so that he would not have to look at her.

"It was not their intentions to shot Alex…" Alex focused back on the conversation just as Blunt answered.

"Did not mean to shot him?" Ian hollered. "If it was not their intention to shot him, then why in the world would they shot AT him?"

"They did not know who he was. To them he was just an intruder." Blunt explained. Alex raised his eyebrows, and decided to interfere.

"So you are saying that it is completely normal for your people to shot children just because they are in places they are not supposed to?"

Blunt had nothing to say to that and Alex just shook his head. He picked up the book and decided to start reading the next chapter.

*****************AN******************

**Everything written in "bold" is cited from: ****Anthony Horowitz:**_**Stormbreaker.**___**Walker books, 2006.**

Sorry for the long wait, a lot happened to me since I last updated. I broke my leg, so I had a hard time focusing on the story, then when my cast came of I had three weeks of intense studying to do before my exam at school, but I hope you all understand and I will try to not take this much time before updating again, but I make no promises, you never know what life throws at you.

At one point in the story Alex say that he hates those stuck up rich brats that one can normally find in private schools, I know that not all people that go to private schools are rich brats, if I remember, the reason as to why Alex think this will be explained later in this story, or in one of the other ones. (if I decide to do the other books too)

_**Please review and tell me who you want to join the reading I really would appreciate your opinion. **_


	4. Royal & General and Death threats

**AN: Sorry for the long wait. Hope you enjoy the new chapter, please review and tell me what you think, I am getting desperate here **

**Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to Alex rider. All rights go to their respective owners. **

*****************'Story'***************

Alex couldn't help but feel anxious. He was happy that they were all showing how much they cared about him, seeing how they reacted to this incident he couldn't help but wonder how they would react to the more dangerous events yet to come.

**Royal & General **Alex read.

**The bank rang the following day.**

Ian jumped up. "why can't you just leave him alone, wasn't it enough that you almost killed him?" He glared at Blunt. "If you end up doing what I believe you have done. I will murder you." Alex jumped up and pulled him back.

"How about you wait with the killing until the reading is done. Or do you want to stop reading." Alex tried to keep the hope out of his voice, it would solve everything if they just stopped reading right now.

Ian shook his head and sat back down. "I will wait" he said while giving Blunt the evil eye. Alex nodded and picked up the book again.

"**This is John Crawley. Do you remember me? Personnel Manager at Royal & General. We were wondering if you could come in."**

"**Come in?" Alex was half-dressed, already late for school.**

"**This afternoon. We found some papers of your uncle's. We need to talk to you… about your own position."** **Was there something faintly threatening in the man's voice?**

"That's great. And this is the people protecting out country. Having to threaten a kid to even meet them." Tom said. The soldiers looked insulted.

"Hey, we are the ones protecting the country." Eagle pouted.

"Yeah, that's reassuring isn't it" Alex laughed and shard a look with Tom.

"**What time this afternoon?" Alex asked**

"**Could you manage half-past four? We're on Liverpool Street; we can send a cab-"**

"**I'll be there" Alex said. "And I'll take the tube."**

"Aww, Cubby is playing all grown- up going places all by himself." Eagle mock cooed.

Alex raised his eyebrow. "just as I said, it is really reassuring knowing people like you are protecting us." Tom laughed while Eagle glared at Alex. Ian and Yassens lips twitched.

"**Who was that?" Jack called out of the kitchen. She was cooking breakfast for the two of them although how long she could remain with Alex was a growing worry. Her wages hadn't been paid.** **She had only her own money to buy food and pay for the running of the house. Worse still, her visa was about to expire. Soon she wouldn't even be allowed to stay in the country.**

"I really should have taken that as a sign and left right then." Jack mumbled. Ian looked over at her, yet again wondering what was going on with her. Alex wouldn't even look at her and just kept reading.

"**That was the bank." Alex came into the room wearing his spare uniform. He hadn't told her what had happened at the breaker's yard. He hadn't even told her about the empty office.**

"Got the making of a good spy right there. Already hiding the truth." Jack said. Alex ignored her and kept reading.

**Jack had enough on her mind. "I'm going there this afternoon," he said.**

"**Do you want me to come?"**

"**No I'll be fine."**

"Probably should have let her come and it would have saved me a lot of pain." Alex mumbled and Ian decided that he needed to find out what all this was about.

**He found the bank easily enough. The Royal & General occupied a tall, antique-looking building with a Union Jack fluttering from a pole about fifteen floors up.** **There was a brass plaque with the name next to the main door and a security camera swiveling slowly over the pavement.**

**Alex stopped in front of it. For a moment he wondered if he was making a mistake going in.**

"Yes you are" Ian shouted. "Run, cubby, Run!" Eagle yelled.

**If the bank had been responsible in some way for Ian Rider's death, it was always possible they had asked him here to arrange his own.**

**But why would anyone from the bank want to kill him? He didn't even have an account there.**

"A little paranoid there little Alex?" Yassen comented making them all jump, he had been so quiet that most of them had forgotten he was there.

"well, that depends on how you look at it," Alex said. "in my point of view it kinda seems like they are trying to kill me."

"Maybe that is the reason they are doing it" Tom said. All faces turned to him. "you know, because you don't have an account with them. You have to chose your bank with care young Alex. Or stuff like this is bound to happen.

**He went inside and in an office on the seventeenth floor the image on the television monitor flickered and changes as Street Camera #1 smoothly cut across to Reception Cameras #2 and #3 and Alex passed the brightness outside to the cool shadows of the interior. A man sitting behind a desk reached out and pressed a button and the camera zoomed in until Alex's face filled the screen.**

"**So he came," the chairman of the bank muttered.**

"Freaking stalker" Tom said and Alex hid a grin.

"**That's the boy?" The speaker was a middle-aged woman. She had a strange, potato-shaped head and her black hair looked as if it had been cut using a pair of blfunt scissors and an upturned bowl.**

"YES Jones, hes just a boy leave him alone" Ian snarled. Eagle looked over at Alex. "you are a little to descriptive aren't you, shouldn't describe women like that you know." Alex stared at him for a while. "I thought we had been through this, for one thing this is not my freaking thoughts. The other point is that in this book I am in the lobby. How in the world would I be able to also be in his office too?"

**Her eyes were almost as black as her hair. She was dressed in a severe gray suit and was sucking a peppermint. "Are you sure about this, Alan?" she asked.**

«At least one of you has some sense." Ian huffed.

**Alan Blunt nodded. "Oh yes. Quite sure. You know what to do." This last question was addressed to his driver, who was also in the room.**

**The driver was standing uncomfortably, slightly hunched over. His face was a chalky white. He had been like that ever since he had tried to stop Alex in the auto junkyard.**

"That's my boy" Alex just rolled his eyes and wondered if he was ever going to stop commenting.

"**Yes, sir." he said.**

"**Then do it." Blunt said. His eyes never left the screen.**

"Another one that's going on my list." Ian mumbled with eyes burning with hate.

**In the lobby, Alex had asked for John Crawley and was sitting on a leather sofa, vaguely wondering why so few people were going in or out.**

"Because once you leave that place you will never return alive" Tom tried to say in an ominous voice.

**The reception area was quiet and claustrophobic, with a brown marble floor, three elevators to one side, and above the desk a row of clocks showing the time in every major world city. But it could have been the entrance to anywhere. A hospital. A concert hall. Even a cruise liner. The place had no identity of its own.**

"That's probably the point istn it?" Alex said.

**One of the elevators slid open and Crawley appeared in the same suit he had worn at the funeral but with a different tie. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, Alex." he said. "Have you come straight from school?"**

**Alex stood up but said nothing, allowing his uniform to answer the man's question.**

"Cocky" Ian whistled.

"**Let's go up to my office." Crawley said. He gestured. "We'll take the elevator."**

**Alex didn't notice the fourth camera inside the elevator, but then it was concealed on the other side of the one-way mirror that covered the back wall. Nor did he see the thermal intensifier next to the camera. But this second machine both looked at him and through him as he stood there, turning him into a pulsating mass of different colors, none of which translated into the cold steel of a hidden gun or knife.**

"Good to know" Alex said. "Now I will know to bring my murder weapons in through the backdoor." He continued sarcastically.

**In less than the time it took Alex to blink, the machine had passed its information down to a computer that had instantly evaluated and then sent its own signal back to the circuits that controlled the elevator. It's OK. He's unarmed. Continue to the fifteenth floor.**

**In less than the time it took Alex to blink, the machine had passed its information down to a computer that had instantly evaluated and then sent its own signal back to the circuits that controlled the elevator. It's OK. He's unarmed. Continue to the fifteenth floor.**

"Well I would hope he was unarmed." Snake said. "I know we live in a society with high teen crime but that is slightly ridiculous."

"Paranoid bastards" Ian muttered. Yassen just raised his brow. HE was quite paranoid, but he didn't go around assuming each and every kid was armed.

**"Here we are." Crawley smiled and ushered Alex out into a long corridor with an uncarpeted wooden floor and modern lighting. A series of doors were punctuated by brightly colored abstract paintings. "My office is just along here." Crawley pointed the way. They had passed three doors when Alex stopped. Each door had a nameplate and this one he knew 1504: Ian Rider.**

**White letters on black plastic.**

**Crawley nodded sadly. "Yes. This was where your uncle worked. He'll be much missed."**

"Yeah right. I hated it in there. That place has no life. It is sooo boooring. Ian sang. "And I really doubt I will be missed it seems to me like you are already trying to replace me."

"**Can I go inside?" Alex asked.**

**Crawley seemed surprised. "Why do you want to do that?"**

"Wow that dude is seriously stupid isn't he." Tom stated. "YEAH, the answer is like totally obvious" Eagle almost shouted, not wanting to be out childed by a kid.

"**I'd be interested to see where he worked."**

**"I'm sorry." Crawley sighed. "The door will have been locked and I don't have the key. Another time perhaps."**

Ian sighed. "hook" he thought.

**He gestured again. He used his hands like a magician as if he were about to produce a fan of cards.**

"**I have the office next door. Just here."**

**They went into 1505. It was a large square room, with three windows looking out over the station.**

**There was a flutter of red and blue outside and Alex remembered the flag he had seen. The flagpole was right next to the office.**

Smithers blinked. Why had that come up. He remembered a rumor he had heard that day, but quickly put it out of his mind there was no way Alex was that crazy.

**Inside there was a desk and chair, a couple of sofas in the corner, a fridge on the wall, a couple of prints. A boring executive's office. Perfect for a boring executive.**

"Actually, it was too boring and too perfect. It all seemed quite fake." Alex stated before he started to read again.

**"Please, Alex. Sit down." Crawley said. He went over to the fridge. "Can I get you a drink?"**

"**Do you have coke?"**

"**Yes." Crawley opened a can and filled a glass, then handed it to Alex. "Ice?"**

"No don't drink it!" Tom and Eagle yelled. "It might be poisoned"

Alex chuckled. "I really wished I hadn't" he said and continued.

**"No, thanks." Alex took a sip. It wasn't Coke. It wasn't even Pepsi. He recognized the oversweet, slightly cloying taste of supermarket cola and wished he'd asked for water. **

Eagle made a face and Tom grinned. "I feel ya mate, those sodas suck!"

**"So what do you want to talk to me about?"**

**"Your uncle's will…"**

**The telephone rang and with another hand sign, this one for 'excuse me', Crawley answered it. **

"well that was convenient" both the soldiers and Yassen thought.

**He spoke for a few moments, then hung up again. "I'm very sorry, Alex. I have to go back down to the lobby. Do you mind?"**

**"Go ahead." Alex settled himself on the sofa.**

Ian wanted to bang his head on something. "Line" he thought and looked sadly over at Alex.

**"I'll be about five minutes." With a final nod of apology, Crawley left.**

**Alex waited a few seconds. Then he poured the cola into a potted plant and stood up.**

"That poor, poor plant" Tom mock sobbed. "what have it ever done to you!"

**He went over to the door and back into the corridor. At the far end a woman carrying a bunch of papers appeared and disappeared through a door. There was no sign of Crawley.**

**Quickly, Alex moved back** **to the door of 1504 and tried the handle… But Crawley had been telling the truth. It was locked.**

**Alex went back into Crawley's office. He would have given anything to spend a few minutes alone in Ian Rider's office. Somebody thought the dead man's work was important enough to keep hidden from him.**

"Smart boy" Yassen thought to himself, "now if he weren't so curious he would be fine."

**They had broken into his house and cleaned out everything they'd found in the office there. Perhaps the office next door might tell him why. What exactly was Ian Rider involved in? And was it the reason why he had been killed?**

**The flag fluttered again and, seeing it, Alex went over to the window. The pole jutted out of the building, exactly halfway between rooms 1504 and 1505.**

"Alex, why do they keep talking so much about that flag?" Ian asked worriedly. "Please tell me you didn't do something stupid."

Alex smiled reassuringly. "I didn't do anything stupid Ian." He said. And everyone face palmed. For a spy kid, he really could not lie well.

**If he could somehow reach it, he should be able to jump onto the ledge that ran along the side of the building outside room 1504.**

**Of course he was fifteen floors up. If he jumped and missed there would be a couple of hundred feet to fall. It was a stupid idea. It wasn't even worth thinking about.**

"So don't" Ian pleaded with the book.

**Alex opened the window and climbed out.**

**It was better not to think about it at all.**

"That's not what I meant!" Ian cried and jumped Alex and pulling him into a great bear hug.

**He would just do it. After all, if this was the ground floor or a jungle gym in the school yard it would be child's play.**

"But it isn't the jungle gym little Alex, one of the major signs is the great length down to the grown." Yassen said in a neutral voice. Not really knowing if he should be proud of his little brother or contemplating emitting him into an asylum.

**It was only the sheer brick wall stretching down to the pavement, the cars and buses moving like toys, so far below and the blast of the wind against his face that made it terrifying. Don't think about it. Do it.**

**Alex lowered himself on the ledge outside Crawley's office.**

Tom starred at the book with wide eyes while muttering under his voice. "bad idea, bad idea, a very, very bad idea." The soldiers were looking at Alex with shocked eyes. Alex just shook his head. Clearly he was fine or he wouldn't really be sitting there reading would he.

**His hands were behind him, clutching on to the window-sill. He took a deep breath. And jumped.**

**A camera located in an office across the road caught Alex as he launched himself into space. Two floors above, Alan Blunt was still sitting in front of the screen. He chuckled**. **It was a humorless sound. "I told you," he said. "The boy's extraordinary."**

"you just sat there!" Ian bellowed. "you just sat there laughing while my fourteen year old slightly depressed nephew jumped out of a window!" Ian heaved. "What kind of heartless monster are you." He could not believe he had ever worked for this guy.

"**The boy's quite mad," the woman retorted.**

"**Well, maybe that's what we need."**

"**You're just going to sit there here and watch him kill himself?"**

"**I'm going to sit here and hope he survives."**

"yeah, 'cause that makes all the difference." The soldiers muttered. Blunt just sat there with an emotionless face, while Jones avoided their eyes.

**Alex had miscalculated the jump.**

"Wha… what?" Tom and Ian exclaimed. "how in the world are you sitting there right now?" Snake asked.

**He had missed the flagpole by a centimeter and would have plunged down to the pavement if his hands hadn't caught hold of the Union Jack itself.**

"Well, that's disrespectful Alex. True patriots don't use the flag like that." Ben joked. Alex glared at him.

"Oh stick it where the sun doesn't shine" he muttered. "I'm no patriot." He got strange looks. "What? I'm not, I love the queen and all that, but our government sucks, and I can say that 'cause I have met the men leading this country and they really suck."

**He was hanging now with his feet in mid-air. Slowly, with huge effort, he pulled himself up, his fingers hooking into the material.**

**Somehow he managed to climb back on to the pole. He still didn't look down. He just hoped that no passer-by would look up.**

**It was easier after that. He squatted on the pole, then threw himself across to the ledge out-side Ian Rider's office.**

**He had to be careful.**

**Too far to the left and he would crash into the side of the building, but too far the other way and he would fall.**

**In fact he landed perfectly, grabbing hold of the ledge with both hands and then pulling himself up until he was level with the window. It was only now that he wondered if the window would be locked. If so he'd just have to go back.**

Everyone paled. And you could hear someone chanting. "please don't be locked." Over and over again.

**It wasn't. Alex slid the window open and hoisted himself into the second office, which was, in many ways, a carbon copy of the first. It had the same furniture, the same carpet, even a similar painting on the wall.**

**He went over to the desk and sat down.**

**The first thing he saw was a photograph of himself taken the summer before on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe where he had gone diving. There was a second picture tucked into the corner of the frame, Alex aged five or six.** **He was surprised and a little saddened by the photographs. Ian Rider had been more sentimental than he had pretended.**

"Of course I am, I love you Alex, please tell me you know that." Ian said sadly. Alex smiled at him. "of course I know that Ian. Don't worry to much." There was no reason why Alex should tell him that he had had his doubts as MI6 had used him.

**Alex glanced at his watch. About three minutes had passed since Crawley had left the office and he had said he would be back in five. If he was going to find anything here, he had to find it quickly. He pulled open a drawer in the desk. It contained four or five thick files. Alex took them and opened them. He saw at once that they had nothing to do with banking.**

**The first was marked NERVE POISONS: NEW METHODS OF CONCEALMENT AND DISSEMINATION.**

**Alex put it aside and looked at the second, ASSASSINATIONS: FOUR CASE STUDIES.**

**Growing ever more puzzled, he quickly flicked through the rest of the files which covered counterterrorism, the movement of uranium across Europe, and interrogation techniques. The last file was simply labeled: STORMBREAKER.**

**Alex was about to read it when the door suddenly opened and two men walked in.**

**One of them was Crawley. The other was the driver from the junkyard. Alex knew that there was no point trying to explain what he was doing. He was sitting behind the desk with the Stormbreaker file open in his hands.**

And sinker, Ian thought sadly, he couldn't believe Blunt was doing this to a child. None the less a Rider child. One would think he knew better than that by now. But obviously not. So it seemed like he would have to remind him later, why one should never mess with a child of the Rider family.

**But at the same time he realized that the two men weren't surprised to see him there. From the way they had come into the room, they had expected to find him.**

**"This isn't a bank." Alex said. "Who are you? Was my uncle working for you? Did you kill him?"**

**"So many questions." Crawley muttered. "But I'm afraid we're not authorized to give you the answers."**

Tom blinked. "wow, that guy has really seen too many movies." Alex snickered.

**The second man lifted his hand and Alex saw that he was holding a gun. He stood up behind the desk, holding the file as if to protect himself. "No…" he began.**

**The man fired.**

Both Yassen and Ian jumped up. "That had better not have been a real gun," Yassen hissed while stalking towards Blunt with murder in his eyes. Ian was busy trying to undress Alex to find out if he had any holes in him. Alex pushed him away and grabbed Yassen. After reassuring them that he had not been shot by a real gun that day, he continued to read.

**There was no explosion.** **The gun spat at Alex and he felt something slam into his heart. His hand opened, and the file tumbled to the ground. Then, his legs buckled, the room twisted, and he fell back into nothing.**

Everyone not MI6, plus Smithers gave the two heads disgusted looks. None of them could understand how anyone could do something like that to an innocent child.

"Just you wait until we are finished with these books Blunt." Ian threathned. "I will make you pay." Yassen nodded beside him.

"I will help"

"So will we" came from all the soldiers, Smithers just nodded in agreement. The only person not saying anything was Jack. Who had turned away from them all.

****************AN*************'

**Everything written in "bold" is cited from:****Anthony Horowitz:**_**Stormbreaker.**_**Walker books, 2006.**


	5. So what do you say and Toms frustration

An: sorry, I completely forgot about this chapter, but here it is, please review and tell me what you think. I wrote this between now and when I posted the other chapter so It probably sucks, but please read and review anyway.

Disclaimer: I do not own or have any right to Alex Rider, all rights go to their respective owners.

*****************Story*******************

"So, who wanna read the exiting new chapter of my boring life?" Alex asked looking around the room." Nobody answered so he decided to just throw the book and let the one it hits read.

"Oww, what the hell Cub." Snake yelled.

Alex just smiled. "nobody wanted to read so I figured that was the best way, now as you didn't duck you can read."

"that is the weirdest logic I have ever heard." Eagle mumbled. "and that's saying something coming from me.

Snake just shook his head and picked up the book.

**"So What Do You Say?" **Snake started.

"I just said that that said something coming from me, pay a little more attention snake." Eagle said.

Everyone else hid a snort. "It's the name of the chapter Eagle, perhaps you are the one who should pay a little more attention." He raised an eyebrow at him.

**ALEX OPENED HIS EYES. So he was still alive! That was a nice surprise.**

"Nice, yes." Alex said in a wondering voice. "not so sure it was a good thing though."

"Alex" Ian yelled. "don't joke about that."

**He was lying on a bed in a large, comfortable room. The bed was modern, but the room was old** **with beams running across the ceiling, a stone fireplace, and narrow windows in an ornate wooden frame. He had seen rooms like this in books when he was studying Shakespeare. He would have said the building was Elizabethan. It had to be somewhere in the country. There was no sound of traffic. Outside he could see trees.**

"you know what Alex?" Tom asked looking like he was thinking hard about something.

"No, what?"

"I am really glad I don't have your brain." Tom nodded to himself. "I would probably have an everlasting headache from all your observations." Alex turned his attention towards him.

"what?"

"well, just think about it. You get shot with something. You wake up in a strange room, and the first thing you decide to notice are the décor, no asking what you are doing there, where you are or anything like that."

"ah, that seems so boringly normal doesn't it. And through observation it is quite possible to figure out the answer to those questions without voicing them, that and there was no one the to answer them so why bother starting with them." Alex replied. Motioning for snake to continue.

**Someone had undressed him. **

"Creepy" Tom said, while Ian got a weird expression on his face.

"How come you don't seem bothered by this now Alex." Ian asked.

"Oh, I have kind of gotten used to it." He answered casually. "so it doesn't bother me anymore."

Ian gapped. "Exactly how many people have undressed you while I was away?"

"Hard to say, I kind of lost count."

Ian face palmed. "My poor little innocent nephew, how many disgusting old geezers have violated you so?"

Alex went kind of pale and tried to ignore his rambling uncle.

**His school uniform was gone. Instead he was wearing loose pajamas, silk from the feel of them. From the light outside he would have guessed it was mid morning. He found his watch lying on the table beside the bed and he reached out for it. The time was twelve o'clock. It had been around half past four when he had been shot with what must have been a drugged dart.**

**He had lost a whole night and half a day.**

"freaking bastards, that was valuable time I could have used doing tons of more important stuff than sleeping. And waking up with that freaking headache from your annoying drugs." Alex started to ramble.

**There was a bathroom leading off from the bedroom bright white tiles and a huge shower behind a cylinder of glass and chrome. Alex stripped off the pajamas and stood for five minutes under a jet of steaming water. He felt better after that.**

**He went back into the bedroom and opened the closet. Someone had been to his house in Chelsea.** **All his clothes were here, neatly hung up.**

"Why in the world did you take all of my clothes anyway?" Alex looked over at Blunt. "what were I, moving in or something?"

Blunt just ignored him and starred pointedly at Snake until he started to read again.

**He wondered what Crawley had told Jack. Presumably he would have made up some story to explain Alex's sudden disappearance. He took out a pair of Gap combat trousers, Nike sweatshirt and sneakers, got dressed, then sat on the bed and waited.**

**About fifteen minutes later there was a knock and the door opened. A young Asian woman in a** **nurse's uniform came in, beaming.**

"that was so annoying," Alex muttered. "I get kidnapped and then I wake up to this madly grinning person. I thought she were going to eat me or something."

Tom started to laugh.

Snake ignored them and continued reading.

**"Oh, you're awake. And dressed. How are you feeling? Not too groggy, I hope. Please come this way. Mr. Blunt is expecting you for lunch."**

"What the blip." Eagle said. Tom and Alex sent him weird looks for the blip thing.

"you get kidnapped, wake up in a strange room where you discover that someone changed you, and then you are invited for lunch?"

"sounds about right." Alex said. "happens more often than you'd think."

"Its like I woke up in this weird dimension," he mumbled. "I am so never eating icecream. Chocolate, chips and dip, while drinking soda and beer before bed ever again."

"well that sounds yummy," Alex drawled, "could we get back to the book now."

**Alex hadn't spoken a word to her.**

"So in other words she didn't care what you had to say, just asked to have something to do?" Tom said. Alex just shrugged.

**He followed her out of the room, along a corridor and down a** **flight of stairs. The house was indeed Elizabethan, with wooden panels along the corridors, ornate chandeliers, and oil paintings of old bearded men in tunics and ruffs. The stairs led down into a tall galleried room with a rug spread out over flagstones and a fireplace big enough to park a car in. A long, polished wooden table had been set for three.**

"again with the décor man," tom yelled frustrated. "why is any of that important, and you still haven't even asked yourself what you are doing there, and now you are with someone so the excuse you used before doesn't count."

"well, she was obviously not the boss, so the chances were that she didn't know, and she was obviously taking me to someone who did. So why waste time asking questions I knew she wouldn't answer."

"YOU are so weird" Tom yelled.

"I know!" he yelled back, "but that is why you became my friend to begin with so what are acting all surprised over."

"oh, yeah that's right sorry."

**Alan Blunt and a dark, rather masculine woman sucking a peppermint were already sitting down.**

"you really should eat candy before lunch you know, it ruins your appetite and your teeth." Tom said to Mrs, Jones.

He completely ignored the weird looks he got from everyone.

**"Alex." Blunt smiled briefly as if it was something he didn't enjoy doing. "It's good of you to join us."**

**Alex sat down. "You didn't give me a lot of choice."**

**"Yes. I don't quite know what Crawley was thinking of, having you shot like that, but I suppose it** **was the easiest way. **

"Actually, it would have been easier to just drug his coke." Tom said.

"Yeah, but then they would not have been able to test him first." Yassen told the kid, who turned shocked towards him.

**May I introduce my colleague, Mrs. Jones."**

**The woman nodded at Alex. Her eyes seemed to examine him minutely, but she said nothing.**

**"Who are you?" Alex asked. "What do you want with me?"**

"See, there I asked." Alex said to Tom who smiled and nodded like everything now was right with the world again.

**I'm sure you have a great many questions. But first, let's eat . . ." Blunt must have pressed a** **hidden button or else he was being overheard, for at that precise moment a door opened and a** **waiter-in white jacket and black trousers appeared carrying three plates.**

"isn't that just a bit to much?" Eagle asked.

"apparently not if you want them to do something enough." Alex answered, "not that I can se how that would work."

**"I hope you like meat,"**

**Blunt continued. "Today it's carre'd'agneu. "**

**"You mean, roast lamb."**

**"The chef is French."**

**Alex waited until the food had been served. Blunt and Mrs. Jones drank red wine. He stuck to** **water. Finally, Blunt began.**

**"As I'm sure you've gathered," he said, "the Royal and General is not a bank.**

"no! really? when did that happen?" Alex played dumb.

**In fact, it doesn't** **exist ... it's nothing more than a cover. And it follows, of course, that your uncle had nothing to do** **with banking. He worked for me. My name, as I told you at the funeral, is Blunt. I am the chief** **executive of the Special Operations Division of MI6. And your uncle was, for want of a better word, a spy."**

**Alex couldn't help smiling. "You mean ... like James Bond?"**

**"Similar, although we don't go in for numbers. Double 0 and all the rest of it.**

"Ha suckers, I got a double 0, or is that trippel, well what ever I am so much cooler than you." Alex had just figured out what came after this chapter and he couldn't wait.

The soldiers face palmed, wondering if he really thought they had ment the nickname as a good thing.

**Your uncle was a field agent, highly trained and very courageous. He successfully completed assignments in Iran,** **Washington, Hong Kong, and Havana ... to name but a few. I imagine this must come as a bit of a** **shock for you."**

**Alex thought about the dead man, what he had known of him. His privacy. His long absences** **abroad. And the times he had come home injured. A bandaged arm one time. A bruised face** **another. Little accidents, Alex had been told. But now it all made sense. "I'm not shocked," he said.**

**Blunt cut a neat slice off his meat. "Ian Rider's luck ran out on his last mission,"**

"that had nothing to do with luck." Alex sneered. " I know Yassen didn't really do it, but you sent Ian to a place were you knew he would be, and there is no way you wouldn't know that he would recognize him."

**he went on. "He** **had been working undercover here in England, in Cornwall, and was driving back to London to** **make a report when he was killed. You saw his car at the yard-"**

**"Stryker and Son," Alex muttered. "Who are they?"**

**"Just people we use. We have budget restraints. We have to contract some of our work out. We hired them to clean things up. Mrs. Jones here is our head of operations. It was she who gave your uncle his last assignment."**

**"We're very sorry to have lost him, Alex." The woman spoke for the first time. She didn't sound very sorry at all.**

"I really was" Mrs. Jones, defended her self, but no one listened.

**"Do you know who killed him?"**

**"Yes.**

**"Are you going to tell me?"**

**"No. Not now."**

**"Why not?"**

**"Because you don't need to know. Not at this stage."**

"Yeah that would take some explaining wouldn't it," Yassen smirked. Blunt grew paler under the assasins bloodthirsty glare.

**"All right." Alex considered what he did know. "My uncle was a spy. Thanks to you he's dead. Ifound out too much so you knocked me out and brought me here. Where am I, by the way?"**

**"This is one of our training centers," Mrs. Jones said.**

**"You've brought me here because you don't want me to tell anyone what I know. Is that what this is all about? Because if it is, I'll sign the Official Secrets Act or whatever it is you want me to do, but then I'd like to go home. This is all crazy, anyway. And I've had enough. I'm out of here."**

**Blunt coughed quietly. "It's not quite as easy as that," he said.**

"Its never as easy as that." Alex said mournfully.

**"Why not?"**

**"It's certainly true that you did draw attention to yourself both at the junkyard and then at our** **offices on Liverpool Street. And it's also true that what you know and what I'm about to tell you** **must go no further. But the fact of the matter is, Alex, that we need your help."**

**"My help?"**

"That's kind of pathetic." Tom said. "for a government agency to need a kids help."

Eagle nodded in agreement. "yeah, it makes you feel real safe doesn't it?"

Tom actually nodded at this one. "well, I do, but that is because I know alex, but had it been someone else I would have been seriously scared. And who is to say alex is the only one,"

**"Yes." He paused. "Have you heard of a man called Herod Sayle?''**

**Alex thought for a moment. "I've seen his name in the newspapers. He's something to do with** **computers. And he owns racehorses. Doesn't he come from somewhere in Egypt?"**

**"Yes. From Cairo." Blunt took a sip of wine. "Let me tell you his story, Alex. I'm sure you'll find it of interest.**

"not really, so please skip it, I'll probably get to hear it again anyway." Alex mumbled.

**"Herod Sayle was born in complete poverty in the backstreets of Cairo. His father was a failed oral hygienist. His mother took in washing. He had nine brothers and four sisters, all living together in three small rooms along with the family goat. Young Herod never went to school and he should have ended up unemployed, unable to read or write, like the rest of them."**

**"But when he was seven, something occurred that changed his life. He was walking down Fez** **Street-in the middle of Cairo-when he happened to see an upright piano fall out of a fourteen story window. Apparently it was being moved and it somehow overturned. Anyway, there were a** **couple of English tourists walking along the pavement underneath and they would both have been crushed-no doubt about it except at the last minute Herod threw himself at them and pushed them out of the way. The piano missed them by an inch.**

"Wow, he's a nice guy ain't he," Snake muttered. Alex huffed.

"Yeah, you have no idea of how nice a man he is."

**"Of course, the tourists were enormously grateful to the young Egyptian wife and it now turned out that they were very rich. They made inquiries about him and discovered how poor he was ... the very clothes he was wearing had been passed down by all nine of his brothers. And so, out of** **gratitude, they more or less adopted him. **

**(…)**

**Stormbreaker. Alex remembered the file he had found in Ian Rider's office. Things were beginning to come together.**

**"The Stormbreaker is being manufactured by Sayle Enterprises," Mrs. Jones said. "There's been a lot of talk about the design. It has a black keyboard and black casing"**

**"With a lightning bolt going down the side," Alex said. He had seen a picture of it in PCReview.**

**"It doesn't only look different," Blunt cut in. "It's based on a completely new technology. It uses** **something called the round processor. I don't suppose that will mean anything to you."**

**"It's an integrated circuit on a sphere of silicon about one millimeter in diameter," Alex said. "It's ninety percent cheaper to produce than an ordinary chip because the whole thing is sealed in so you don't need clean rooms for production."**

The room grew silent. Everybody just sat there staring at Alex.

"What?" he asked oblivious.

"how in the world did you know that?" Wolf asked.

"Oh, I read it somewhere once." He answered.

Everyone just continued starring at him.

"oh yeah that's true. Your truly smart, but you pretend to be stupid so that people will have less expectations of you and underestimate you or something right?" Tom said.

Alex nodded. "its working to, or I would probably be dead." He said casually.

Ian paled. What in the world had happened when he was away.

**"Oh. Yes . . ." Blunt coughed. "I'm surprised you know so much about it."**

**"It must be my age," Alex said.**

**"Well," Blunt continued, "the point is, later today, Sayle Enterprises are going to make a quite** **remarkable announcement. They are planning to give away tens of thousands of these computers.**

**In fact, it is their intention to ensure that every secondary school in England gets its own** **Stormbreaker. It's an unparalleled act of generosity, Sayle's way of thanking the country that gave him a home."**

**"So the man's a hero."**

**"So it would seem. He wrote to Downing Street a few months ago: 'My dear Prime Minister. You** **may remember me from our school days together. For almost forty years I have lived in England** **and I wish to make a gesture, something that will never be forgotten, to express my true feelings** **toward your country.' The letter went on to describe the gift and was signed,'Yours humbly,' by the man himself. Of course, the whole government was excited. The computers are being assembled at the Sayle plant down in Port Tallon, Cornwall. They'll be shipped across the country at the end of this month, and on April first there's to be a special ceremony at the Science Museum in London.**

"hey, wait a minute, I remember that. There was this big commotion because some one had broken in and started to shoot randomly wasn't it?" Eagle asked.

Alex just sat there innocently, he was so not gonna tell them that was him.

**The prime minister is going to press the button that will bring all the computers online ... the** **whole lot of them. And this is top secret, by the way-Mr. Sayle is to be rewarded with British** **citizenship, which is something he has apparently always wanted."**

"Wow, so he publicly buys citizenship and everyone is alright with it. It really is true that the media is the third power." Tom said.

**"Well, I'm very happy for him," Alex said. "But you still haven't told me what this has got to do with me."**

**Blunt glanced at Mrs. Jones, who had finished her meal while he was talking. She unwrapped** **another peppermint and took over. "For some time now, this department-Special Operations-has** **been concerned about Mr. Sayle. The fact of the matter is, we've been wondering if he isn't too** **good to be true. **

"coughParanoidCough" Tom fake coughed.

**I won't go into all the details, Alex, but we've been looking at his business** **dealings-he has contacts in China and the former Soviet Union, countries that have never been our friends. The government may think he's a saint, but there's a ruthless side to him too. And the security arrangements down at Port Tallon worry us. He's more or less formed his own private army. He's acting as if he's got something to hide."**

**"Not that anyone will listen to us," Blunt muttered.**

**"Exactly. The government's too keen to get their hands on these computers to listen to us. That** **was why we decided to send our own man down to the plant. Supposedly to check on security. But, in fact, his job was to keep an eye on Herod Sayle."**

**"You're talking about my uncle," Alex said. Ian Rider had told him that he was going to** **an insurance convention. Another lie in a life that had been nothing but lies.**

**"Yes. He was there for three weeks and, like us, he didn't exactly take to Mr. Sayle. In his first** **reports he described him as short-tempered and unpleasant. But at the same time, he had to admit that everything seemed to be fine. Production was on schedule. The Stormbreakers were coming off the line. And everyone seemed to be happy.**

**"But then we got a message. Rider couldn't say very much because it was an open line, but he told us that something had happened. He said he'd discovered something. That the Stormbreakers mustn't leave the plant and that he was coming up to London at once. He left Port Tallon at four o'clock. He never even got to the freeway. He was ambushed in a quiet country lane. The local police found the car. We arranged for it to be brought up here."**

**Alex sat in silence. He could imagine it. A twisting lane with the trees just in blossom. The silver** **BMW gleaming as it raced past. And, around a corner, a second car waiting . . . " Why are you** **telling me all this?" he asked.**

**"It proves what we were saying," Blunt replied. "We have our doubts about Sayle so we send a man down. Our best man. He finds out something and he ends up dead. Maybe Rider discovered the truth-"**

**"But I don't understand!" Alex interrupted. "Sayle is giving away the computers. He's not making any money out of them in return, he's getting a medal and British citizenship. Fine-what's he got to hide?"**

**"We don't know," Blunt said. "We just don't know. But we want to find out. And soon. Before these computers leave the plant."**

**"They're being shipped out on March thirty-first," Mrs. Jones added. "Only three weeks from now."**

**She glanced at Blunt. He nodded. "That's why it's essential for us to send someone else to Port** **Tallon. Someone to continue where your uncle left off."**

**Alex smiled queasily. "I hope you're not looking at me."**

"Really messed up." Eagle mumbled. "asking this of a kid, what kind of people are you."

Ian sat there glaring at Blunt and Jones. They would so pay for this. Sending a kid, his kid against a mad man, they would soon se the error of their ways.

**"We can't just send in another agent," Mrs. Jones said. "The enemy has shown his hand. He's killed Rider. He'll be expecting a replacement. Somehow we have to trick him."**

**"We have to send someone in who won't be noticed," Blunt continued. "Someone who can look** **around and report back without being seen. **

"Again, at this point you definitely knew Yassen was there and you knew he would regognize the similarity between me and my father and you still sent me down there, what are you trying to do? Kill of every Rider in England?" Alex snarled.

**We were considering sending down a woman. She** **might be able to slip in as a cleaner or a kitchen helper. But then I had a better idea."**

"You gotta be shitting me?" Wolf said. The government he had joined the army to protect was doing this shit to a kid.

"**A few months ago, one of these computer magazines ran a competition.'Be the first boy or girl to** **use the Stormbreaker Travel to Port Tallon and meet Herod Sayle himself 'That was the first prizeand it was won by some young chap who's apparently a bit of a whiz kid when it comes to** **computers. Name of Felix Lester. Fourteen years old. The same age as yourself. He looks a bit like you too.**

"He so did not look anything like me." Alex mumbled.

**He's expected down at Port Tallon two weeks from now."**

**"Wait a minute-"**

**"You've already shown yourself to be extraordinarily brave and resourceful," Blunt said. "First at the junkyard ... that was a karate kick, wasn't it? How long have you been learning karate?" Alex didn't answer so Blunt went on. 'And then there was that little test we arranged for you at the bank. Any boy who would climb out of a fifteenth floor window just to satisfy his own curiosity has to be rather special, and it seems to me that you are very special indeed."**

"Was he complementing you or insulting you?" Tom asked.

"I have no idea. It felt like when you say that crazy people are just special. You know?" Alex said looking up at Tom who laughed.

"well, I always said you were insane. "

"haha" Alex responded sarcasticly.

**"What we're suggesting is that you come and work for us," **

"Wrong," Alex said. "You never paid me, therefor I did not work for you, you simply used me."

**Mrs. Jones said. "We have enough time to give you some basic training-not that you'll probably need it-and we can equip you with a few items that may help you with what we have in mind. Then we'll arrange for you to take the place of this other boy. We'll pack him off to Florida or somewhere ... give him a holiday as a consolation prize. You'll go to Sayle Enterprises on March twenty-ninth. That's when the Lester boy is expected.**

"**You'll stay there until April first which is the day of the ceremony. The timing couldn't be better.**

**You'll be able to meet Herod Sayle, keep an eye on him, tell us what you think. Perhaps you'll also find out what it was that your uncle discovered and why he had to die for it. You shouldn't be** **in any danger. After all, who would suspect a fourteen – year old boy of being a spy?"**

"Of course not, they are just sending you out in the middle of nowhere, to spy on a madman who they think killed your uncle. Why would that be dangerous." Ian snarled at Blunt.

**"All we're asking you to do is to report back to us," Blunt said. "April first is just three weeks from now. That's all we're asking. Three weeks of your time. A chance to make sure these computers are everything they're cracked up to be. A chance to serve your country."**

"Oh my God! He's fourteen, to damn young to thing about serving his country." Wolf yelled.

**Blunt had finished his lunch. His plate was completely clean, as if there had never been any food on it at all. He put down his knife and fork, laying them precisely side by side. "All right, Alex," he said.**

**"So what do you say?"**

**There was a long pause.**

**Alex put down his own knife and fork. He hadn't eaten anything. Blunt was watching him with polite interest. Mrs. Jones was unwrapping yet another peppermint, her black eyes seemingly fixed on the twist of paper in her hands.**

**"No," Alex said.**

**"I'm sorry?"**

**"It's a dumb idea. I don't want to be a spy. I want to play soccer. Anyway, I have a life of my own." He found it difficult to choose the right words. The whole thing was so preposterous he almost wanted to laugh. "Why don't you ask this Felix Lester to snoop around for you?"**

"Yeah, you said he knew computers, he would probably know what to look for, and be less likely to mess up the backstory as it is his life." Ben said.

**"We don't believe he'd be as resourceful as you," Blunt said.**

**"He's probably better at computer games." Alex shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm just not interested. I don't want to get involved."**

**"That's a pity," Blunt said. His tone of voice hadn't changed, but there was a heavy, dead quality to the words. And there was something different about him. Throughout the meal he had been polite not friendly but at least human. In an instant that had disappeared. Alex thought of a toilet chain being pulled. The human part of him had just been flushed away.**

**"We'd better move on then to discuss your future," he continued. "Like it or not, Alex, the Royal and General is now your legal guardian."**

**"I thought you said the Royal and General didn't exist."**

"Burn" Tom yelled.

**Blunt ignored him. "Ian Rider has, of course, left the house and all his money to you. However, he left it in trust until you are twenty-one. And we control that trust. So there will, I'm afraid, have to be some changes. The American girl who lives with you-"**

"What the hell, Blunt. You know my will says that Jack is to be his legal guardian if she choses and if she don't then he is to be emancipated.

**"Jack?"**

**"Miss Starbright. Her visa has expired. She'll be returned to America. We propose to put the house on the market. Unfortunately, you have no relatives who would be prepared to look after you, so I'm afraid that also means you'll have to leave Brookland. You'll be sent to an institution. There's one I know just outside Birmingham. The Saint Elizabeth in Sourbridge. Not a very pleasant place, but I'm afraid there's no alternative."**

"What the fuck" the soldiers yelled. "your blackmailing a freaking kid."

Ian and Yassen fumed. Sure Yassen had said this life was not for Alex, but had he known that they had forced him, he would have taken him with him that day, and never let them see him again.

**"You're blackmailing me!" Alex exclaimed.**

**"Not at all."**

"then what the hell are you calling it in your fantasy world." Ian yelled.

**"But if I agreed to do what you asked ... ?"**

**Blunt glanced at Mrs. Jones. "Help us and we'll help you," she said.**

"That's like the definition of blackmail right there," tom yelled.

**Alex considered, but not for very long. He had no choice and he knew it. Not when these people**

**controlled his money, his present life, his entire future. "You talked about training," he said.**

**Mrs. Jones nodded. "Felix Lester is expected at Port Tallon in two weeks," she said. "That doesn't give us very much time. But it's also why we brought you here, Alex. This is a training center. If you agree to what we want, we can start at once."**

**"Start at once." Alex spoke the three words without liking the sound of them. Blunt and Mrs. Jones were waiting for his answer. He sighed. "Yeah. All right. It doesn't look like I've got very much choice."**

**He glanced at the slices of cold lamb on his plate. Dead meat. Suddenly he knew how it felt.**

"that's right alex, keep your spirit up." Tom nodded.

"I compared myself to dead meat." He said looking at his best friend . "how is that keeping my sprits up."

"ah just forget it, someone please keep reading so that we can get this over with, I have other things to do." Alex said.

****************An**************'

The writing in **bold** is cited from **Anthony Horowitz:**_**Stormbreaker.**_**Walker books, 2006.**

**Please review and tell me what you think!**


	6. Double 0 nothing and Alexs amusement

AN: Sorry if the writing is bad, I have been writing this between exams, no sleep and being sick. If you think it is really pathetic review and say so and I will rewrite it, when I get the time.

Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to Alex Rider or anything associated with the series. All rights go to their respective owners.

************************Story****************

It took quite some time before they all calmed down enough to start reading again. Alex was actually looking forward to this chapter. He wondered how his uncle would react to the fact that he had gone to Brecon Beacons.

Yassen noticed the silent amusement in his eyes and picked up the book. He got shocked looks from everyone except the kids and Ian, the last one just sent him an amused glance.

**DOUBLE 0 NOTHING **Yassen read. He noticed that the soldiers winced and Alex hid a smile.

**For the hundredth time, Alex cursed Alan Blunt using a language he hadn't even realized he knew.**

"You cursed!" Tom jumped up and pointed at Alex. The only thing he got in return was a weird stare. "You never curse" he pouted. "I tried to get you to curse for months, this is so unfair." He crossed his arms and dropped down into the couch again.

**It was almost five o'clock in the evening, although it could have been five o'clock in the morning: the sky had barely changed at all throughout the day. It was grey, cold, unforgiving.** **The rain was still falling, a thin drizzle that travelled horizontally in the wind, soaking through his supposedly waterproof clothing,**

"What do you mean supposedly?" Wolf asked. Alex looked up at him.

"Well, I would think the meaning was quite clear." He huffed. "supposedly, as in they actually weren't."

The soldiers shared a perplexed look. The clothes were waterproof for a reason. If they weren't you could get really sick from the different training grounds and the weather. "Why didn't you say something?" Ben asked.

Alex gave him a pointed stare. "Do I look like someone who enjoy being marked as a wuss and weakling?" Ian sent them a questioning glance. He couldn't understand what they were talking about. Why would his nephew be somewhere involved with SAS soldiers.

He drew in a deep breath, the Sergeant would never allow that, he was smarter than that, wasn't he? He shoock his head, he really hoped he wouldn't have to put an SAS Sergeant on his list.

**mixing with his sweat and dirt, chilling him to the bone.** **He unfolded his map and checked his position once again. He had to be close to the last RV of the day - the last****rendezvous****point but he could see nothing.**

**He was standing on a narrow track made up of loose grey shingle that crunched under his combat boots when he walked.**

"I really hope you are not where I think you are Alex" Ian ground out between closed teeth." Alex just smiled.

"I am sitting right here Ian, where in the world do you think I am?" Alex smiled cheeky. Ian just huffed.

**The track snaked round the side of a mountain with a sheer drop to the right. He was somewhere in the Brecon Beacons and there should have been a view, but it had wiped out by the rain and the fading light.**

Ian looked over at the soldiers with a fake smile on his face. "So what is the name of your Sergeant?" he asked the soldiers. They just ignored him, they would not be responsible for releasing a Rider on a superior officer.

**A few trees twisted out of the side of the hill, with leaves as hard as thorns. Behind him, below him, ahead of him, it was all the same. Nowhere Land.**

**Alex hurt. The 10- kilogram Bergen rucksack he had been forced to wear cut into his shoulders and had rubbed blisters on his back. **

"the weight wasn't that bad, but dang that rucksack had some sharp edges on it." Alex muttered and the soldiers shared another stare. It really seemed like someone had messed with the kid's equipment.

**His right knee, where he had fallen earlier in the day, was no longer bleeding but still stung. His shoulder was bruised and there was a gash along the side of his neck.**

Snake shifted, he hadn't known about that, he felt his guilt grow, as the team medic he should have been aware that the kid had been hurt, he could have gotten an infection or something.

**His camouflage outfit- he had swapped his Gap combat trousers for the real thing - fitted him badly, cutting his legs and under his arms but hanging loose everywhere else.**

"Ok, that just proves it, someone definitely messed with the equipment." Ben said and the other soldiers nodded.

**He was close to exhaustion, he knew, almost too tired to feel how much pain he was in. But for the glucose and caffeine tablets in his survival pack, he would have ground to a halt hours ago. He knew that if he didn't find the RV soon he would be physically unable to continue. Then he would be thrown off the course. "Binned" as they called it. They would like that.**

"So would I, when I think about it" Alex mused, Ben smiled at him.

"Do you really thing they would have let you leave that easily." Alex looked down, mock hurt.

"you could at least have let me enjoy the idea." Ian smiled at the friendhip he saw them share. He was happy that it seemed like someone had bothered to care for him while he was away.

**Swallowing down the taste of defeat, Alex folded the map and forced himself on.**

**It was his ninth - or maybe his tenth - day of training. Time had begun to dissolve into itself, as shapeless as the rain.**

"Another point that just proves that this book doesn't know my thoughts." Alex said and nodded to himself. "If I had been able to think up something like that in a situation like that, I would so have aced my last English assignment."

**After his lunch with Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones, he had been moved out of the manor house and into a crude wooden hut in the training camp a few miles away. There were nine huts in total, each equipped with four metal beds and four metal lockers. A fifth had been squeezed into one of them to accomodate Alex.**

**Two more huts, painted a different colour, stood side by side. One of these was the kitchen and mess hall. The other contained toilets, sinks and showers - with not a single hot tap in sight.**

**On his first day there, alex had been introduced to his training officer, an incredibly fit black sergeant. He was the sort of man who thought he'd seen everything. Until he saw Alex.**

Alex smiled. "Yay I'm special." He muttered sarcastically. Tom smiled at him.

"Poor man, what did he ever do to deserve seeing a teenager."

**And he examined the new arrival for a long minute before he had spoken.**

**"It's not my job to ask questions," he said. "But if it was, I'd want to know what they're thinking of, sending me children.**

"The funny thing was that he actually thought I was going to answer him." Alex laughed. "those hidden threats/questions has never actually worked on me."

**Do you have any idea where you are, boy? This isn't Butlins. This isn't the Club Méditerranée" he cut the word into its five syllables and spat them out. "I have you for eleven days and they expect me to give you the type of training that should take fourteen weeks. That's not just mad. That's suicidal."**

"Ok, I have always said that Lexi is suicidal, but it's not like he actually asked to be there, so back of sergey." Tom exclaimed. Alex just smiled and pattet him on the back.

**"I didn't ask to be here," Alex had said.**

"Hey look Tommy, we said the same thing." He paused. "kind of"

The soldiers laughed, "you should so not have said that, I cannot believe you can still hear."

**Suddenly the sergeant was furious. "You don't speak to me unless I give you permission," he shouted. "And when you speak to me, you address me as 'sir'. Do you understand?"**

**"Yes, sir." Alex has already decided that the man was even worse than his geography teacher.**

"No freaking way, seriously, he's worse than him?" Tom shouted, "How is that even possible?"

Alex laughed. "I know, that was what I thought too. You so do not want to meet this guy, it took all my will power to not prank him."

The soldiers stared at him. "He would so have killed you." Eagle muttered.

**"There are five units operational here at the moment," the officer went on. "You'll join K Unit. As the sergeant had predicted, they weren't exactly overjoyed to see him.** **There were four of them. As Alex was soon to discover, the Special Operations Division of MI6 sent its agents to the same training centre used by the Special Air Service - the SAS. Much of the training was based on SAS methods and this included the numbers and make-up of each team. So there was four men, each with their own special skills. And one boy, seemingly with none.**

Ian smirked and Tom started to laugh. If only they knew what Alex really could do, they would run with their tailes between their legs.

**They were all in their mid-twenties, spread out over the bunks in companionable silence. Two of them smoking. One dismantling and reassembling his gun - a 9mm Browning High Power pistol. Each of them had been given a code name: Wolf, Fox, Eagle and Snake. From now on, Alex would be known as Cub.**

"that's oddly fitting" Ian said. "when I took you around the camp when you were a baby, they dubbed you panther cub, since you escaped your carriage and terrorized the soldiers, they said you behaved like a feline. Therefore you were dubbed Panther cub, and you won the respect of them all. I wonder if this Sergeant was there that day or if you were given the name just because of your age." Ian mused out loud and Alex got a weird glint in his eyes, the soldiers felt a weird forboding feeling deep in their guts, they did not want to go back to camo any day soon.

**The leader, Wolf, was the one with the gun. He was short and muscular with square shoulders as black, close cropped hair. He had a handsome face, made slightly uneven by his nose, which had been broken at some time in the past.**

"You are very good at deducting little Alex." Yassen said and earned a smile from Alex.

"Yeah, I used to love Sherlock Holmes so I thought myself how to observe and deduct. Never thought I would actually have any use for it though."

**He was the first to speak. Putting the gun down, he examined Alex with cold, dark-grey eyes. "So who the hell do you think you are?" he demanded.**

**"Cub," Alex replied.**

**"A bloody schoolboy!" Wolf spoke with a strange, slightly foreign accent.**

"Why ask if you are just going to answer it yourself." Alex pouted.

**"I don't believe it. Are you with Special Operations?"**

"I love how you seem to think he will answer you." Tom laughed.

"He is a kid I figured he would chicken out and tell me." Wolf grumbled. Alex hid a smile. Like that would happen.

**"I'm not allowed to tell you that." Alex went over to his bunk and sat down. The mattress felt as solid as the frame.** **Despite the cold, there was only one blanket.**

**Wolf shook his head and smiled humourlessly. "Look what they've sent us," he muttered. "Double 0 Seven? Double 0 Nothing more like."**

"Wouldn't that be like trippel 0. Or just nothing." Tom asked confused. "you know, since nothing and cero is the same thing." Alex laughed and the soldiers shifted, they felt so guilty now that they had learned more about the kid.

**After that, the name stuck. Double 0 Nothing was what they called him.**

Nothing. That was what he was after all wasn't it`Alex thought. He knew very well that Jack was going to leave him, Ian already had, and he had never said he was back to stay. Maybe he actually meant nothing to any of them.

**In the days that followed, Alex shadowed the group, not quite part of it but never far away. Almost everything they did, he did. He learned map-reading, radio communication and first aid. He took part in unarmed combat class and was knocked to the ground so often that it took all his nerve to persuade himself to get back up again.**

Ian frowned. "you already knew most of that stuff though." He commented.

Alex nodded. "yeah the author probably just assumed I didn't, and I faked the combat thing. I figured the soldiers would just hate me more if I beat them." K-unit shifted guiltily, and Alex sent them an reassuring smile. He didn't blame them. He knew they had tried to scare him of so that he would go back home and live a normal life. They had no way of knowing he was not here on his own accord.

**And then there was the assault course. Five times he was shouted and bullied across the nightmare of nets and ladders, tunnels and ditches, swinging tightropes and towering walls, that stretched for almost half a kilometre through, and over, the woodland beside the huts. Alex thought of it as the adventure playground from hell.**

"Hey. That's wrong, I actually liked that one." Alex commented and sent the book an annoyed glare. Ian smiled and ruffled his hair.

**The first time he tried it, he fell off a rope and into a pit that seemed to have been filled on purpose with freezing slime.**

"It was," Wolf said. "It is supposed to give you a reason to not want to fall in again." Alex moaned.

"That is soooo mean." He whined.

**Half-drowned and filthy, he had been sent back to the start by the sergeant. Alex thought he would never get to the end, but the second time he finished it in twenty-five minutes - which he cut down to seventeen minutes by the end of the week.**

"Impressive" Ian smiled. Everyone else silently agreed. They did so not want to mess with this kid.

**Bruised and exhausted though he was, he was quietly pleased with himself. Even Wolf only manged it in twelve.**

"Only!" Eagle laughed. Wolf sent Alex and annoyed glare.

"Twelve is a damn good time Cub." He grumbled.

"yeah probably, but you have run it quite a few times and with the way I was going I would have beaten you if I had run it a few more times

**Wolf remained actively hostile towards Alex.**

**The other three men simply ignored him, but Wolf did everything he could to taunt or humiliate him. It was as if Alex had somehow insulted him by being placed in the group. Once, crawling under the nets, Wolf lashed out with his foot, missing Alex's face by a centimetre.**

"Wolf!" Ben snarled and moved as to punch him. Alex rose quickly and intercepted him.

""Don't Ben, it was a long time ago" he muttered silently.

**Of course he would have said it was an accident if the boot had connected. Another time he was more successful, tripping Alex up in the mess hall and sending him flying, along with his tray, cutlery and steaming plate of stew. And every time he spoke to Alex, he used the same sneering tone of voice.**

**"Goodnight, Double 0 Nothing. Don't wet the bed."**

Alex smiled. That was a thought. He envisioned how the soldiers would react if they all were to wake up to wet beds.

**Alex bit his lip and said nothing. But he was glad when the men were sent off for a day's jungle survival course - this wasn't part of his training - even though the sergeant worked him twice as hard once they were gone. He preferred to be on his own.**

"he has always been like that" ian sulked. "popular as hell, but always wanting to be alone to do stuff."

Tom smiled. "that didn't stop me though did it"

**But on the eighth day, Wolf did come close to finishing him altogether. It happened in the killing house.**

"What do you mean?" Snake asked.

"Yeah, you have to admit that that one was all on you Cub." Eagle added. Ben just starred suspiciously at them.

**The Killing House was a fake; a mock-up of an embassy use to train the SAS in the art of hostage release. Alex had twice watched K Unit go into the house, the first time swinging down from the roof, and had followed their progress on closed circuit TV. All four men were armed. Alex himself didn't take part because someone somewhere ha decided he shouldn't carry a gun.**

"I really love your logic Blunty." Alex said, "I'm old enough to die for you, but I'm not old enough to carry a gun. Or is it that you are afraid that I would decide I would be better of just shooting you?"

Blunt didn't answer. He just looked from Alex to mrs. Jones and raised an eyebrow. Alex simply raised one back, she was sitting there completely unharmed after all.

**Inside the killing house, mannequins had beeare arranged as terrorists and hostages. Smashing down doors and using stun grenades to clear the rooms with deafening, multiple blasts, Wolf, Fox, Eagle and Snake had successfully completed their mission both times.**

**This time Alex had joined them. The Killing House had been booby-trapped. They weren't told how. All five of them were unarmed. Their job was simply to get from one end of the house to the other without being "killed".**

**They almost made it.**

"well, if your technical we made it, you were the only one who didn't." Eagle said, looking over at Alex who just huffed annoyed.

**In the first room, made up to look like a huge dining-room, they found the pressure pads under the carpet and the infrared beams across the doors. For Alex it was an eerie experience, tiptoeing behind the other four men, watching as they dismantled the two devices, using cigarette smoke to expose the otherwise invisible beams. It was strange to be afraid of everything yet see nothing.**

**In the hallway there was a motion detector which would have activated a machine-gun (Alex assumed it was loaded with blanks) behind a Japenese screen.**

**The third room was empty. The fourth was a living room with the exit - a set of French windows on the other side. There was a trip-wire, barely thicker than a human hair, running the entire width of the room, and te French windows were alarmed. While Snake dealt with the alarm, Fox and Eagle prepared to neutralise the trip-wire, unclipping an electronic circuit board and a variety of tools from their belts.**

**Wolf stopped them. "Leave it. We're out of here." at the same moment Snake signalled. He had deactivated the alarm. The French windows were open.** **Snake was the first out. Then Fox and Eagle. Alex would have been the last to leave the room, but just as he reached the exit he found wolf blocking his way.**

**"Tough luck, Double 0 Nothing," Wolf said. His voice was soft, almost kind.**

"Wolf? Kind?" Eagle muttered, "well, that's a scary thought."

**The next thing Alex knew, the heel of Wolf's palm had rammed into his chest, pushing him back with astonishing force.**

"you did what?!" Ben snarled lounging for him. Wolf shrunk back against the seat. He really did regret his actions, so he would not defend himself

Alex jumped up and caught Bens fist before it hit its target. Woah, there Fox, calm down. He regrets it there is no reason to become violent over this.

**Taken by suprise he lost his balance and fell, remembered the tripwire and tried to twist his body to avoid it. But it was hopeless. His flailing left hand caught the wire. He actually felt it against his wrist.**

**He hit the floor pulling the wire with him. And then...**

**The HRT stun grenade has been used frequently by the SAS. It's a small device filled with a mixture of magnesium powder and mercury fulminate. When the trip-wire activated the grenade, the mercuryexploded at once, not just deafening Alex but shuddering through him as if it could rip out his heart. At the same time, the magnesium ignited and burned for a full ten seconds. The light was so blinding that even closing his eyes made no difference. Alex lay there with his face against the wooden floor, his hand scrabbling against his head, unable to move, waiting for it to end.**

**But even ten it wasn't over. When the magnesium finally burned out, it was as if all the light had burned out with it. Alex stumbled to his feet, unable to see or hear, not even sure anymore where he was. He felt sick to his stomach. The room swayed around him. The heavy smell of chemicals hung in the air.**

Ben snarled furiously, "Not something I recommend trying." Alex joked. Trying to calm the soldier down. Not noticing that his uncle was sending Wolf burning glares.

**Ten minutes later he staggered out into the open. Wolf was waiting for him with the others, his face blank, and Alex realized he must have slipped out before he'd hit the ground. An angry sergeant walked over to him. Alex hadn't expected to see a shred of concern in the man's face and he wasn't disappointed.**

**"Do you want to tell me what happened in there, Cub?" he demanded. When Alex didn't answer, he went on. "You ruined the exercise. You fouled up. You could get the whole unit binned. So you better start telling me what went wrong."**

**Alex glanced at Wolf. Wolf looked the other way. What should he say? Should he even try to tell the truth?**

"yeah right, like I would do something as stupid as that." Alex huffed, seriously annoyed of the way the author was making him out.

**"Well?" The sergeant was waiting.**

**"Nothing happened, sir," Alex said. "I just wasn't looking where I was going. I stepped on something and there was an explosion."**

Eagle laughed. "one thing is for certain kid, you sure do know how to act. I didn't even suspect that to be a lie." Alex smiled back.

"Yeah, well you soon find out that lying to a spy isn't that easy, and I am a kid. I found out early on that if I were to get away with anything, I would have to find another way, and acting is lying on such a grander scale, so if you do it right it is hard to detect." Alex sent an innocent smile to his uncle who just shook his head fondly at his antics.

**"If that was real life, you'd be dead," the sergeant said. "What did I tell you? Sending me a child was a mistake. A stupid, clumsy child who doesn't look where he's going ... that's even worse?"**

"Yeah," Ian smiled. "That is actually true, Alex used to be such a clumsy child, that was one of the reasons why he wanted to start karate, to gain better control over both his body and his mind. Well that was what he told me anyway, and as he was six at the time I really doubted it." Alex just smiled cheekily at him.

**Alex stood where he was, just taking it. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Wolf half-smiling.**

**The sergeant had seen it too. "You think it's so funny, Wolf? You can go clean up in there. And the rest of you'd better get some rest. All of you. Because tomorrow you've got a forty kilometre hike. Survival rations. No fire. This is a survival course. An if you do survive, then maybe you'll have a reason to smile."**

"You know, that man actually seems kinda funny." Tom said, nodding to himself.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, I have always enjoyed that kind of dark humor." Alex mused.

**Alex remembered the words now, exactly twenty-four hours later. He had spent the last eleven of them on his feet, following the trail the sergeant has set out for him on te map. The excercise had began at six o'clock in the morning after a grey-lit breakfast of sausages and beans. Wolf and the others had disappeared into the distance ahead of him a long time ago,** **even though they had been given 25-kilogram rucksacks to carry. They had also been given only eight hours to complete the course. Allowing for his age, Alex had been given twelve.**

**He rounded a corner, his feet scrunching on the gravel. There was someone standing ahead of him. It was the sergeant. He had just lit a cigarette and Alex watched him slide the matches back into his pocket.**

"You didn't?" Tom and Ian exclaimed. The only answer they got was a smirk.

**Seeing him there brought back the shame and anger of the day before and at the same time sapped the lay of his strength. Suddenly Alex had had enough of Blunt, Mrs Jones, Wolf... the whole stupid thing.**

**With a final effort he stumbled the last hundred metres and came to a halt. Rain and sweat trickled down the sidsmog his face. His hair, now dark with grime, was glued across his forehead.**

**The sergeant looked at his watch. "Eleven hours, five minutes. That's not bad Cub. But the others were here three hours ago."**

**Bully for them, Alex thought. He didn't say anything.**

**"Anyway, you should just make it to the last RV," the sergeant went on. "It's up there."**

**He pointed to a wall. Not a sloping wall. A sheer one. Solid rock rising fifty metres up without a handhold or foothold in sight. Even looking at it, Alex felt his stomach shrink. Ian Rider had taken him climbing - in Scotland, in France, all over Europe. But he had never attempted anything as difficult as this. Not on his own. Not when he was so tired.**

"I'm all for trying anything once, but this was kinda ridiculous." Alex snorted. "I wondered what would have happened had I fallen to my death." Alex mused, not noticing the murderous looks covering his uncles and Yassens faces. They told everyone exactly what would have happened to the sergeant if he had fallen.

**"I can't," he said. In the end the two words came out easily.**

"Ok that proves it," Tom sang. "you never admit when you can't do something, you are definitely up to something." He nodded. Alex just sat there smiling innocently.

**"I didn't hear that," the sergeant said.**

"It's kind of worrisome that a sergeant as young as him is starting to lose his hearing, and that he is allowed to continue working in this line of work." Eagle said mockingly.

**"I said, I can't do it, sir."**

**"Can't isn't a word we use around here."**

**"I don't care. I've had enough. I've just had..." Alex's voice cracked. He didn't trust himself to go on. He stood there, cold and empty, waiting for the axe to fall.**

"the soldiers sent eachother shamefull looks. It seemed like they had managed what they had been trying for. They had broken the kid, and it didn't feel as good as they had thought it would. They looked up to see how the kid was doing, but froze in fear when they meet the eyes of the assassin and the kids uncle. They were so gonna die, they thought.

None of them noticed Alexs eyes laughing at them.

**But it didn't. The sergeant gazed at him for a long minute. He nodded his head slowly. "Listen to me, Cub," he said. "I know what happened in the Killing House."**

"What?!" Wolf paled. How in the world had he not been binned.

**Alex glanced up.**

**"Wolf forgot about the closed circuit TV. We've got it all on film."**

"Holy…" Eagle started.

"Language!" Snape snapped.

"macaroni?" Eagle ended. " I was gonna say holy macaroni." He tried to defent himself, but were met with raised eyebrows.

**"Then why -?" Alex began.**

**"Did you make a complaint against him, Cub?"**

**"No, sir."**

**"Do you want to make a complaint against him, Cub?"**

**A pause. Then, "No, sir."**

The soldiers couldn't understand it, why was the kid so freaking nice. They had made his life hell and he was so nice…

"its because Alex don't approve of bullying and snitches." Tom answered their thoughts. "you may have acted like bullies, but that didn't mean that he would act as a snitch."

**"Good." the sergeant pointed at the rock face, suggesting a path up with his finger. "It's not a difficult as it looks," he said. "And they're waiting for you just over the top. You've got a nice cold dinner. Survival rations. You don't want to miss that."**

"I still don't know if he were serious or sarcastic there, and that's saying something." Alex mumbled.

Everyone except Tom and Ian sent him confused looks.

"it because Alex is like the king of sarcasm" Tom explained. "if he don't know if you are using it, you are either very good or very bad at it."

**Alex drew a deep breath and started forward. As he passed the sergeant, he stumbled and put out a hand to steady himself, brushing against him. "Sorry, sir," he said.**

Ian, Yassen and Tom tuned more into the book, wondering if Alex had just done what they thought he had done.

**It took him twenty minutes to reach the top and, sure enough, K Unit was already there, crouching around three small tents that they must have pitched earlier in the afternoon. Two for two men sharing. One, the smallest one, for Alex.**

**Snake, a thin, fair-haired man with spoke with a Scottish accent, looked up at Alex. He had a tin of cold stew in one hand, a teaspoon in te other.**

**"I didn't think you'd make it," he said. Alex couldn't help but notice a certain warmth in the man's voice. And for the first time he hadn't called his Double 0 Nothing.**

"I never really agreed to what they were doing and I should have made them stop. Yet I helped because I was worried about your health and hoped you would give up and go home. I am truly sorry Cub." Snake said in a sad apologetic voice. Alex just smiled at nodded at him, showing that all was forgiven.

**"Nor did I," Alex said.**

**Wolf was squatting over what he hoped would become a camp fire, trying to get it started with two flints while Fox and Eagle watched. He was getting nowhere. The stones only produced the smallest of sparks, and the scraps of newspaper and leaves that he had collected were already far too wet. Wolf struck at the stones again and again. The others watched, their faces glum.**

**Alex held out the box of matches that he had pick-pocketed from the sergeant when he had pretended to stumble at the foot of the rock face.**

"I knew it!" Tom yelled jumping around in a victory dance. "I just knew you were up to something. You never give up that easily." Ian and Yassen just smiled, they had figured it out to and were both very provd of him, Yassen even clapped his shoulder.

**"These might help," he said.**

**He threw the matches down, then he went into his tent.**

The soldiers didn't even realize the chapter was done. They just sat there gaping at the kid. A fourteen year old schoolboy had been sent to SAS camp, been put through hell, then he had dared to talk back to the sergeant and then pick pocketed him. Then help the bastards that had put him through hell in the first place. What kind of kid was this? Was he some kind of saint or something?

They were brought out of their musing by someone laughing their ass of.

They looked up and saw Alex almost rolling around on the floor.

"y..yo…you should see… your faces… man … your faces, soo funny." He gasped out through his laughter.

***********************AN*********************'

The writing in **bold** is cited from **Anthony Horowitz:**_**Stormbreaker.**_**Walker books, 2006.**

**Please review and tell me what you think!**


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